This year, as in the last few years, the Global Mitochondrial Disease Awareness Week was held, in the third week of September. The GMDAW is focussed on creating awareness, education, fundraising and advocacy efforts with respect to mitochondrial disease all around the world. In many countries national events were organised with this aim. This varied from walking- and biking tours to raise funds, to patient information days, and general information campaigns.
For 2017 IMP wanted to set the GMDAW globally on the map by beating the world record of lighting out the most monuments/landmarks ever. Of course in green light, the colour which represents the disease best. The Guinness World Record was held with 38 monuments. The goal for IMP was to light out 55 monuments for 24 hours worldwide in the night of the 16th of September. The number 55 was chosen because it was 55 years ago that the first mitochondrial diagnosis was set.
A special workforce within IMP, covering Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Canada and the United States, started the #lightupformito campaign. The idea was to have those lighted landmarks being photographed and posted on Facebook and Twitter, so that the campaign went viral.
It turned out to be a big success! The world record is set!
A total of 108 important landmarks in 11 different countries were lighted out in green. Mitochondrial disease was in the spotlights for once. Among the landmarks were wellknown monuments such as the Colosseum in Rome, the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, the Niagara Waterfalls in Canada, and the Empire State Building in New York. And many, many more. The green light campaign triggered much attention on Facebook and Twitter and the green trend was copied with pictures of people in green T-shirts, gatherings in green light, green candles, etc. etc. Additionally, the campaign received attention in numerous national newspapers and in some cases on television.
IMP wishes to thank all those who were involved in this fantastic campaign!
