Hi Neighbors - Just wanted to advise you all of the Walk to Cure Psoriasis in Pittsburgh, which is taking place this Saturday in Schenley Park. Psoriasis is the most common auto-immune disease in the US, affecting more than 7 million people nationwide (and an estimated 125 million people worldwide). It's a chronic, hereditary disease that can (and often does) have a huge impact on the quality of life of those who suffer with it. In addition, many sufferers also develop psoriatic arthritis at some point in their life. The National Psoriasis Foundation funds research into treatments and cures for both diseases, as well as offering patient advocacy, support, and education. My family and I will be walking. Psoriasis has had a huge impact on our lives (my father, son, and I have lesions over most of our bodies). Below is my personal note about why I'm walking and why this cause is so important to me and my family. As of this morning, the walk itself isn't quite at 50% of its fundraising goal, so if this is a cause that's important to you or someone you know, please consider making a donation, no matter how small. This is a link to our team fundraising page, where you can make your donation online. (Either for the team as a whole by clicking "Support Costa Family" or on behalf of one of us directly, by clicking on a name in our team list.) Or you can make your donation by sending a check made out to the National Psoriasis Foundation, noting my name (or one of the boys’ names) and Pittsburgh in the memo line. http://walk.psoriasis.org/site/TR/2011Walks/WalktoCurePsoriasis?pg=team&fr_id=1801&team_id=17880 There is a temptation to be careful with what I say, with how I say it, because I don’t want to sound too negative, don’t want to play the victim, don’t want to seem like I feel sorry for myself, don’t want to dwell too much on the problem. But there is a problem. A problem we’re walking to help solve. A problem that has touched our lives in huge ways. A disease that has played a huge role in making me the woman I am, for better and for worse. This walk is about solving that problem. About making a better life. About giving hope to people with psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis. This walk is about a teen-aged girl who tried to be dispassionate about how ugly she was. Who tried not to care that people stared at her in public. Who wrote plays about the struggle not to explode with rage at the way society treated her because of her skin. Who hated her appearance and herself. Who allowed her skin to become the armor that protected her from the world and who has spent her adult life trying not to be afraid to be seen. This is about a little boy who was tormented by his peers, called “Scab King” and “Snake Face,” who learned that interacting with his classmates meant rejection and teasing and bullying, and who was told by a teacher that if he couldn’t stop picking at his itchy skin, he couldn’t stay in her class. Who wept with gratitude when he got home from his first outing with a group of children who were kind to him and who didn’t stare or call names. This walk is about millions of people. Not about just the little girl I remember being or the boy I’m raising but about a host of children and adults whose battle with psoriasis has meant having to fight, and fight hard, not to believe that their skin makes them ugly or that no one will love them because of the way they look. Millions of people who have to choose between hiding their skin or tolerating the stares and questions of strangers. Millions of people who try not to call attention to themselves. And it’s about the children and adults who, like me and my sister, have developed psoriatic arthritis. Who, on any given day, may wake up in pain and go through their day in pain and struggle to sleep in spite of the pain. Who are steadily losing the ability to do everyday tasks. Whose joints are deteriorating because the currently-available treatments are too expensive for them or just don't work for them, or who have sacrificed the protection of their immune system because the medication that gives them relief also compromises their immune response. It’s about people who have been told there’s no cure, who have tried everything – from immune-compromising injections to chemotherapy medications, from light booths to tar baths, from extreme dietary changes to just plain praying – and are losing hope that they’ll ever find the thing that works for them. This walk is about finding a cure and restoring our hope. I hope you can find it in your heart to support us. Thanks, Julie