Hope Foundation teaching public about lupus

THE WIDER Barbadian public is being given an opportunity to learn more on how lupus impacts on the family.

The Hope Foundation, which focusses on lupus, sickle cell anaemia and arthritis, is launching a new initiative entitled Lupus Diary as part of the celebration of the foundation’s 25th anniversary. The project will highlight the perspective of all those affected by lupus.

The Foundation which kicked off its activity with a thanksgiving church service at St Michael and All Angels Cathedral Thursday night also held an open day at its headquarters today.

“In this 25th anniversary we thought that we would focus in on lupus because it is an area that we can profess that we are a leader in. We have established that Barbados has the second highest incidence reported cases of lupus in the world; we come second only to Italy and we know that Barbados has a very interesting story to tell about lupus,” said president Shelley Weir.

She said over her 26 years of being diagnosed with the condition she had seen families being affected by the death of a mother and now the children were coming forward to know more about lupus.

Weir said the condition affected mostly women who represented 44 per cent of the heads of households in Barbados.

She said some people living with lupus required drugs that cost $18 000 for four doses and the condition was the fifth highest reason for dialysis at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. (JS)