May 1st is fast approaching, which means it is almost time for this year’s Walk Your AS Off event.
The Spondylitis Association of America (SAA) is proud to take Walk Your AS Off into the future and continue the amazing work that founder Jenna Visscher began years ago.
Since our founding in 1983, the Spondylitis Association of America (SAA) has been the face, voice and leading nationwide nonprofit organization educating, empowering, and advocating for people living with spondyloarthritis. Through our extensive work with patients, the medical community, and partners we provide information and resources to help people impacted by the disease live better lives and champion research to find a cure. Your donations make this all possible.
Walk Your AS Off is another opportunity to support SAA with a gift in honor of a fellow walker, a loved one, or someone you walk for.
If you have participated before then you are all set. Your account from last year will be waiting for you. Just log in and start tracking your steps. Treat the time leading up to May 1st as practice for the main event, and make sure you can log back into your account and log steps, and maybe leave a note for your team and say hi in the team messaging system.
If you are new to Walk Your AS Off, then welcome!
Should you walk with us? Yes! Most people with spondylitis benefit from regular exercise. And remember all exercise counts and can be converted to steps to be logged. Whether it’s work around the house or garden, yoga, or cycling, it can all be converted!
If you have any questions or want to start a team but are not sure how to don’t be afraid to reach out to us at info@spondylitis.org
This year’s World AS Day falls on Saturday, May 4th. Be sure to check out ASIF’s website to learn more about support in your country. https://asif.info/worldasday/
Join us! And wear some cool swag! https://spondylitis.org/store/
Founder Walk Your AS Off
“The Spondylitis Association of America brings decades of experience in providing education, advocacy, and support to individuals with spondyloarthritis and their families. With a comprehensive range of programs and services, SAA is well-equipped to carry forward the legacy of Walk AS One while expanding its reach and impact. By integrating Walk Your AS Off into its existing mission to empower those living with spondyloarthritis, SAA reaffirms its commitment to our global community. Walk Your AS Off will continue to serve as a rallying point for individuals worldwide to unite in the fight against spondyloarthritis. Participants can expect the same spirit of camaraderie, determination, and solidarity that has defined the event over the years, with added support and resources from SAA. Whether walking solo or forming teams, individuals can make a tangible difference by raising funds, raising awareness, and raising hope for a brighter future with spondyloarthritis.”
Motion is lotion with Spondyloarthritis
For someone like me who suffers from two forms of Spondyloarthritis - Axial Spondyloarthritis and Psoriatic Arthritis, 'motion is lotion'. We must keep moving. That's why we launched Walk AS One as a non-profit in 2016 and why we are pushing for awareness. Gentle movement helps to keep our joints working and prevent stiffness, which is something all AS patients worry about. My spine, knees and hips are damaged from AS/AxSpA because I waited more than 10 years for my diagnosis. The delay to diagnosis impacted my access to proper treatments. I had to fail first-line older medications before I could move to biologics.
During this time, my disease was active and insidious. We must close the gap in the delay to diagnosis and ensure that patients have access to medications as early as possible to help stop or slow disease progression. Walk Your AS Off aims to mobilize the AS community, educate others, and provide gentle encouragement to keep on moving. This is why we walk each year for awareness. When I got my diagnosis in 2009, no one knew about AS. I couldn't find any information online. In 2024, the words Ankylosing Spondylitis and Axial Spondyloarthritis are much more common, and we've made a huge impact on awareness. It took a massive community of patients like me with sites like MySeveralWorlds.com and non-profits like the SAA to get the word out to doctors and patients around the world.
We'll keep on going as we walk and take steps with our community through the stars to Mars!
Your best is your best. I’m finally learning that includes me too.
In early 2023 I wanted to prove to myself I was worthy just as I am. I have participated off and on in Walk Your AS Off, but I didn’t think that my few steps would matter to the overall group total. As an overachiever, I had always felt if I couldn’t fully participate, I shouldn’t participate at all. I have in the past, worn myself thin, being a support system to others, but not to myself. So, I finally decided it was time to give the gift of acceptance to myself. On February 8, 2023, I started tracking my steps, hoping I could do a million steps in a year. I forced myself to not set daily goals. I was really shocked how the steps really added up! And by December 6, 2023, I had reached a million steps!
The date that I started to log steps on the website and the date when I hit the goal of a million steps happened to be very significant dates to my family. Ultimately, I was able to walk and track over a million steps in a year by February 8, 2024. I didn’t do anything extra; it was just my normal steps. I didn’t even check my totals all the time, I wanted to be surprised. And I was surprised! It was very healing and powerful for me to know that I’m able to walk a million steps in a year. The year taught me to validate myself, for just existing. My best is my best no matter what. I hope by sharing this you will be inspired to give yourself the opportunity to realize every step matters just as each of us do, just as you are, as I have this year. Even ten steps a day is a step in the right direction.
Join us and Walk Your AS Off with me, you will be surprised at what you can do. I know I was!
Low impact exercise is absolutely critical for those of us living with AS. Walk Your AS Off helps motivate us as a community to lace up those shoes and take some steps! Being involved with Walk Your AS Off is also a great way for us to help educate others about AS. The timing of the walk also coincides with the change of season. After a long Midwest winter, the walk is the PERFECT way to motivate me to lace up my shoes and get back outside!
I was 11 years old in 1969 when Neil Armstrong made the first step off the LEM and onto the lunar surface, and that inspiring leap for all mankind; youthful dreams of going to Mars felt very real. And now some 55 years later I have my chance! With passion, patience, and perseverance, we, the AS community, together will walk to Mars while raising awareness and resources towards a cure, one hundred steps or ten thousand steps, each person, doing what they can as part of the whole. Remember, wholeness does not mean perfection. It means embracing brokenness as we each strive to adapt and live our best lives. With my space suit on I was ready to get beamed up to Mars from this magical bench hidden in the Minnesota wilderness, but walking with all my Spondy friends will be far more fun, besides, I can include my canine walking buddies – please join us.
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