LUPUS EUROPE 
Survey II - Living with Lupus: Work situation
to be launched all over Europe through our national groups - this time in five languages (English, German, French, Spanish, Italian) and following approved methods of scientific research:
Lupus has which influence on work situation.
LUPUS UK 
All members of LUPUS UK have received a copy of the new poster.
Originally intended for schools, it has been decided to put the poster out for general use, asking members and friends to site their copy in a prominent place.
Further posters are available from LUPUS UK National Office.
The design has come from Nicola Dale, Researcher and Graphic Artist, Manchester Royal Infirmary. Nicola has kindly given her time and expertise as a contribution to LUPUS UK.
Along with the new poster, there is a new bookmark with blank butterflies for children to colour-in.
This will be distributed to nursery and primary schools.
Schools are also being asked if pupils can carry out a fund raising e.g. sponsored litter pick-up, sponsored silence, mufti day etc. for a nominal charge of 50p or £1 per child taking part.
However, the main intention of the bookmarks is to bring WLD and lupus to the attention of the children and, hopefully, their parents and grandparents as well.
Once again, WLD stickers have also been mailed to all members for use on envelopes and parcels going through the postal system.
At 12.30pm on 10th May, all members are also asked to text 10 people, who do not have lupus, with the message:
‘Today is World Lupus Day please forward this message to 10 more people and help spread the message throughout the world Thank You’
Begun in 2009, this text-message proved to be very successful with texts even being sent between MPs in Parliament.
If people are unable to text this message, they can use e-mail or just TELL 10 other people.
Members of LUPUS UK are also asked to take part in the on-line Survey (work/career) being launched by LUPUS EUROPE on WLD.
The Survey will be introduced to the UK during the LUPUS UK AGM & Annual Conference taking place in Harrogate, Yorkshire, Sunday, 9th May.
The message going out to LUPUS UK members is:
What can YOU do to help promote World Lupus Day?
Site your poster(s) in a prominent place
Use the WLD stickers on envelopes going through the postal system
Ask a local school if they will distribute WLD bookmarks to pupils
Ask if the school will carry out a small-scale fund raising project – if possible
Text 10 people who do not have lupus and tell them it is WLD
Don’t have text facilities? Then TELL 10 people or E-MAIL 10 people with the message!
Take part in the on-line work/career Survey being launched by LUPUS EUROPE on WLD
Lupus Erythematodes Selbsthilfegemeinschaft e.V., Germany 
The Lupus Foundation Germany celebrates WLD on May 12th in Düsseldorf.
Thanks to the initiative of Prof. Schneider, the "1st German Lupus Day" will take place in Düsseldorf.
Invited to this medical symposium are all lupologists, rheumatologists and other professionals.
On this occasion, the research prize of the Lupus Foundation Germany will be awarded to two scientists.
The German Lupus self-help association plans info desks in several towns including "40,000 balloons for 40,000 lupus patients in Germany" - as we did last year.
SLE DK, Denmark 
SLE DK celebrates WLD10 on May 8th in Odense under the theme "Lupus in the Life" with special focus on tools to assess disease activity and control - getting better acquainted with the tools SLICC, BILAG and Lupus QuoL - their purposes and uses.
We have invited Chair Borgi Winkler-Rohlfing of the German Lupus group to present the promising project of Lupus-Präventions-Pass.
This project has been mainly supported by the German Ministry of Health and the German lupus patients. It focuses on the fact that artheriosclerosis is one of the main causes of death. Artheriosclerosis can be prevented if lupus patients change their lifestyle (less or non smoking, fat reducing, more physical activity, etc). By means of a traffic light system (red - yellow - green), everybody is now able to determine his/her individual risk and to start prevention. Each lupus patient can trace his/her individual prevention efforts online. We want to prove by a related study that lupus patients are able to prolongen their life and improve their quality of life on long-term basis. In addition, the pass documents the disease and individual history for emergency purposes.
LUPUSGRUPPEN I NRF, Norway 
Medical session on May 8th: "Lupus and the Brain".
LUPUS FRANCE 
On the occasion of World Day of Lupus 2010, Lupus France is organizing at May 1, day of training and information for GPs and medical staff on the pathology of SLE, in Rennes (West France).
The idea of interest to general practitioners to the complexity of SLE has always been a concern of Lupus France.
To make Lupus and the World Day known. Indeed, knowing that their illness is a subject of research worldwide reassures patients.
Some greatest professor’s and Lupus specialists will take part in the day and a literature on SLE will be presented.
The event is part of the Continual Medical Training at which each GPs and each doctor must participate.
Lupus France uses tireless efforts to assist GPs and others health areas to deepen their knowledge of lupus disease to know how to recognize and detect it.
Indeed, such a diagnosis is important because it avoids the medical wandering too costly in terms of suffering for the patient and aggravation.
This is the result of a long struggle to recognize the rights of patients with rare diseases with Rare Diseases Alliance (a big Federation of 170's Rare Diseases Associations) where Lupus France plays a major role.
With the Plan of Rare Diseases, we are fortunate to be in front-line in Europe on the issue of treatment of rare diseases including Lupus. Indeed, SLE patients in France have a well system of testing and an access care which are supported totally.
This was possible only through the Reference’s Centres and Centres of Expertise that exists across the French territory. This translates into better care against Lupus. These centres are absolutely useful for lupus awareness and for better diagnosis.
Lupus France will continue to work hand on hand with others health associations to improve and to perpetuate our health benefits. Our motto is: "Only the struggle pays".
GABRIELLA SCHOPPER HUNGARIAN LUPUS GROUP 
International Lupus Day Hungary - 9. May 2010
This year - by favour of Outdoor Scene Margharet Island - the Hungarian Lupus Day was organised in comfortable green area at the Margitsziget. We supposed to invite everybody to have an ease, cheerful Saturday in a family way to speak not only about the discommoded symptoms and medical relations of the lupus.
The roots of this initiation came from the year 2004 when in Eton (UK) an international committee representing lupus organizations from different nations met to organize the first World Lupus Day. Their proclamation called to action for governments around the world to increase their financial support for lupus research and patient services. Since then in each year at first part of May the lupus patients gather in every corner of the world to express their solidarity for each other to focus for this lesser-known illness.
In this year the programme started at 10:00 am with registration and the collection of the cookies and drawings for the competitions on this fields and with lottery as well. A bit later we could listen Yvonne Norton’s salutation (the chairman of Lupus Europe) which followed by the investiture of the Hevér Krisztina’s Award at first time (Krisztina Hevér, 1974 – 2009, former vice-chair and international contact of our group). One of our members from the city Szekszárd Andrea Kátai won this competition although - unfortunately she could not come to receive this award personally but we had the possibility to hear her life-story. Andrea’s peppy and positive way of thinking can be guide all for us.
We had a tiny accident during the competition of the children’s drawings: the rain started to fall and the drawings almost became damp completely but in the last moment we managed to rescue them. It was difficult to decide who has the best application because all of the paintings and drawings were nice.
On the cake-competition worked a lot Ilona-Bera Istvánné (one of the staff members of our group) - she stakes pades from no one - to prepare cookies - she made more than twenty baking pen gingerbread for the starveling members.
We were not out of even organised cabaret programmes: Orsolya Kálóczi and András Győry singers performed well-known musicals and we could laugh together on Zoltán Maksa’s jokes (Zoltán Maksa is one of our famous humorist). There occurred also amateur presenter in our midst: a ten-year old boy who presented Hungarian folk-songs on flute. During the afternoon one of our patient-mates told fortunes by cards and the enquirers could take part on Bach-therapy and kinesiology consultation.
Probably the one of the best presentations was the number of the Isis Belly-Dancer Group. The dancer ladies (from Sopron city) performed a special own choreography imitated butterflies what even passing promenaders and the workers from the near restaurant admired.
Beside the various programmes the time quickly passed, hopefully everybody enjoyed them.
Let’s meet next time, let’s spend together the international Lupus Day!
Henrietta Balázs
Gabriella Schopper Hungarian Lupus Group