Crowdfunding for rare disease – Rare Disease Day

This week mycause activated a powerful campaign for Rare Disease Day in support of thousands of Australians who are living with a rare disease.

With over 50 rare disease causes on our platform, we felt it was imperative to raise awareness and champion support for these unique causes.

The majority of beneficiaries of rare disease causes on mycause are young Australians. Millions of children across the world are believed to be affected by rare diseases.

In the lead up to Rare Disease Day (29 February), mycause employed a comprehensive media and communications campaign. In this article I would like to touch on 3 key causes that were featured across both social and traditional media channels last week.

One of the young Australians featured is Chloe Saxby, who has the extremely rare Vanishing White Matter disease.

Symptoms related to this disease generally appear between the ages of 2 and 6 years. Minor bumps to the head, viruses and stress can potentially trigger loss of motor functions and can even cause death.

With only 7 known cases reported, no research is conducted in Australia on Vanishing White Matter disease. Chloe’s family have therefore turned to crowdfunding to raise $840,000, to fund research overseas that can potentially save Chloe’s life.

Apart from a call to raise funds, this campaign raised much needed awareness of Vanishing White Matter disease and helped increase the community’s understanding of this disease. The campaign was successfully executed across national broadcast television, radio, print and online streams – raising over $50,000 within a day. Nine News and news.com.au launched this campaign with fantastic national coverage. Radio interviews with major broadcasters such as 2GB in Sydney amplified Chloe’s cause to a larger audience.

Within 12 hours of the initial broadcast, this campaign gathered at least 10,000 page views and was shared across a variety of social media platforms.

Another rare disease cause which mycause featured was Tom's Challenge.

Tom from Newcastle - who has been living with Leigh Syndrome and has set himself a series of challenges to break down stigmas associated with his condition - wants to continue living his life to the max.

As part of our engagement strategy for this cause, mycause actively promoted Tom’s Challenge across social media platforms and traditional media outlets. Tom and his companion Lloyd were featured in ABC Newcastle’s mornings and Newcastle Herald, with television coverage to follow.

Crowdfunding is a great way to support causes or projects that people deeply care about. It allows Australians to help people who need critical assistance with a rare disease.

mycause will continue to provide a platform for Australians affected by a rare diseases. Crowdfunding on mycause will help Australians to communicate and share their experiences with the general public, health, pro bono and financial sectors.

Please visit mycause to view more causes or to make a contribution to a rare disease cause.