As HAE friends around the globe will know the annual hae day :-) aims to raise awareness worldwide – and as part of the efforts to raise awareness HAE International organizes the HAE Global Walk.

This was also going to be the case in 2020, and we had pretty high expectations regarding setting another record. However, the coronavirus pandemic turned many things upside down, including a number of scheduled walks in many a member country.

The population in a large number of countries around the world experienced harsh limitations to everyday life during the period of the 2020 HAE Global Walk – that is 1 April to 31 May 2020. Previous years, we have urged HAE friends to gather in groups large and small to walk together and register their steps for the annual campaign. This year many were forced to take precautions because of coronavirus COVID-19, and obviously, we didn’t want anyone to take any chances with their health. Bearing the regulations that might apply in any given country in mind, we did, however, hope that a large number of HAE friends across the world would find it possible to take part in the walk.

More than 3,800 people entered their steps in the 2020 HAE Global Walk campaign. From the entries on the campaign website at haeday.org, it is pretty clear that the majority of contributors have been walking alone or in groups of just a few people. However, despite the coronavirus situation in most countries around the globe, a lot of walking did actually go on.

Compared to the previous years HAE International – and indeed the global HAE family – can be pretty proud of the result:

2019             90,000,000 steps
2020            61,000,000 steps
2018             54,000,000 steps
2017             21,000,000 steps
2016             12,000,000 steps

For those interested in the national scores, here are the first ten countries this year (with the 2019 ranking in brackets):

  1. Canada – 7.700.000 steps (4)
  2. Spain – 4,700,000 steps (2)
  3. Sweden – 4,500,000 steps (new)
  4. Australia – 3,500,000 steps (new)
  5. United States of America – 3,400,000 steps (6)
  6. United Kingdom – 3,200,000 steps (7)
  7. North Macedonia – 3,000,000 steps (1)
  8. United Arab Emirates – 2,800,000 steps (new)
  9. Switzerland – 2,700,000 steps (new)
  10. Germany – 2,700,000 steps (9)

After these ten follows Denmark (2,700,000), Norway (1,900,000), Japan (1,700,000), Hungary (1,500,000) and Austria (1,500,000).

In total the 61,157,204 steps amount to 19,901 kilometers/12,438 miles taken by 3,816 people in 51 countries.

There is no doubt that we see more and more involvement in the campaign across our member countries and with that in mind we will be more than happy to launch another HAE Global Walk on 1 April 2021.