Candies for a Cause – A Sweet Way to Raise Awareness

The following is a guest post by V, a 21 year old with narcolepsy. I first came into contact with her on the Narcolepsy Network message boards. Her hopes for raising awareness and advocating for people with narcolepsy inspire me. Thanks, V, for sharing this with my readers and for raising awareness about narcolepsy!

I’ve started something that is sort of a start up ‘campaign’ because I’m not sure what else to call it.

The first weekend of December was my towns’ Main Street open house and I handed out over 200 candy canes with facts about Narcolepsy on them. I handed them out not to ask for donations, but simply to educate people about this rare disorder.

All I want is for people to know that Narcolepsy is a chronic sleep disorder, caused by a lack of certain proteins and other environmental factors. It is NOT a mental disorder as so many people believe. And please… stop confusing Narcolepsy with Necrophilia. That’s gross.

A lot of my motivation for this little project comes from seeing how little information there is on the internet, in libraries, and just in general. I wanted to raise people’s awareness so that maybe they can say ‘you know, I feel the same way, maybe I should ask my doctor.’ and hopefully get the treatment they need.

Handing them out was a very uplifting experience. A lot of people had questions about the disorder and about my cause. Some reactions weren’t always so curious. Some people were skeptical but still begrudgingly agreed to help. I went around to lots of stores on Main Street and asked them to simply display the Candy Canes and let people know they were free.

Anyway, that’s what my campaign is for. I’m handing out candy canes to help educate people on Narcolepsy and raise awareness for this devastating disorder. I’d love to start having people do this in other cities as well and post pictures of themselves handing out these delicious and factual treats!

Please visit my website: www.candiesforacause.webs.com it’s under construction at the moment, but bookmark it so you can come back and see all the awesome updates! I also have a blog on blogger.