If I Had Endless Resources....

lupus.cheezburger.com

If I had unlimited resources, time, energy, money.....

Well, clearly, if I had unlimited energy, I wouldn't have lupus, and maybe I wouldn't be aware enough of the problems for this to matter to me, but anyway, here's what I like to think I'd do with unlimited resources....

With unlimited resources, there are a couple of things I could do to help fellow lupies.

The first would be to fund the research that will hopefully, one day, give us a cure. That's what we need more than anything.

Next, well, you see the Lupus Business Directory? Well, that wouldn't be just one page on a blog the way it is now.  It would be huge.  It would be advertised everywhere. Lots of lupies lose our income or a large percentage of it when we're sick. I started the directory to help the people who have small (or micro) businesses. A lot of the time, what we sell is something we produced as therapy for our health conditions (not just lupus, but any chronic illnesses are represented in the directory). I write and do artwork, so that's what I have for sale (books and teeshirts).  Other people make jewellery or sew or knit.  Helping promote these businesses helps promote financial independence for people with chronic illnesses.

Another thing I'd love to do, if I had unlimited resources, is to set up a scheme for extra support for lupus patients - to provide money for things like house cleaners, transport to medical appointments, child care during flares, etc. It's the kind of thing people with lupus (and many other chronic illness) really need, but which health insurance and centrelink benefits, etc just don't help with.

Thinking about it, help with affordable, suitable, housing would also be a brilliant idea. (Just knowing what a blessing it is that I finally am living somewhere that is both affordable and suitable.)

But I don't have unlimited resources.  And I don't think Clive Palmer or Gina Reinhardt or any other multi-millionaires would be interested in these ideas because they don't really make money. They would, however, cost rather a lot.

Lupies, it's down to us to help ourselves and each other.  If you have lupus (or another chronic illness) and own/run a business, email me the details for the Lupus Business Directory, that way you can be listed in the directory that we do have.  (That's how you help yourself.)  To help each other, everyone share the link to the directory on social media, Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Pinterest, everything (even email it to friends.)  If there's no budget for advertising, there's still word-of-mouth.

This post written as part of Wego Health's Health Activist Writers Month Challenge.

(Any other lupus bloggers out there doing the HAWMC?  Please add the links to your post on this topic in the Comments. I'd love to read what everyone else dreams of doing.)