Join us to raise awareness on 20 October 2024
The theme for Mastocytosis & Mast Cell Diseases Awareness Day 2024 is “Together in awareness, together in hope”. Whether you’ve lived with Mastocytosis for years or recently been diagnosed with a Mast Cell Disease, such as MCAS or HaT, we’re stronger together. These conditions, though distinct, share a common journey – facing daily challenges, seeking better treatments and working towards greater understanding. Let’s unite because together we can achieve the medical support and community awareness we all need.
Why are we "International Mastocytosis and Mast Cell Diseases Awareness Day"?
The designation “Mastocytosis and Mast Cell Diseases Awareness Day” was chosen to honour both the historical significance and evolving understanding of mast cell diseases.
Mastocytosis is a well-established, rare condition and the first identified mast cell disease. Including “Mast Cell Diseases” in the name acknowledges both newer and emerging conditions like Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS), its subtypes such as Monoclonal Mast Cell Activation Syndrome, and the genetic trait Hereditary Alpha Tryptasemia (HaT). HaT, when symptomatic, further complicates mast cell disease management, and adds an additional layer of diversity within the mast cell disease spectrum.
Our awareness day does not prioritise any single condition but highlights the entire spectrum of mast cell diseases. By recognising both the unique histories and challenges of each condition, we aim to celebrate their distinct aspects while also focusing on the commonalities that unite our community.
This day ensures that all individuals affected by mast cell diseases receive the acknowledgment and support they deserve, fostering a collective effort to raise awareness and drive meaningful change.
Whether your diagnosis is long-standing, newly recognised, or represents a rare subtype, we stand together in our efforts for greater awareness and together in hope for a brighter future.
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Awareness Day and mast cell diseases social media pack
We are trying something new this year and have created Canva template links to share for our social media packs. You will need a Canva account to use these. Our Awareness Day and mast cell diseases social media pack contain video posts with messaging about:
- Awareness Day
- Why are we ‘International Mastocytosis and Mast Cell Diseases Awareness Day’?
- What are mast cells?
- Mastocytosis
- MCAS
- HaT
- Mast Cell Disease Symptoms
Use the social media templates:
Together in awareness, together in hope social media pack
In 2024, the Mastocytosis & Mast Cell Diseases Awareness Day theme embodies the ongoing journey to raise awareness about Mast Cell Activation Disorders (MCADs) while supporting those affected by different forms. While Mastocytosis and MCAS bring their own unique challenges, the day-to-day adjustments and decisions we make to manage these conditions often overlap. Whether it’s rethinking dinner, managing meds, or listening to our bodies when symptoms flare, we share a common resilience. Let’s continue lifting each other in this journey. We’re stronger together. We have developed several images for posts – but this is not an exhaustive list, and we invite you to make your own.
Here are some ideas for how you can use these tools:
- Add your mast cell disease organisation’s logo to the information slides in the white block at the bottom middle of the image
- Make your own – use the blank, transparent frames to add your own messages and photos to the image
- Share these through your social media channels (email lists, Facebook, Instagram, Linked In, etc.) Consider sending out one per day during the time leading up to October 20.
- Or share them from the International Awareness Day pages to your Group and personal pages – on Facebook – follow us @mmcdawarenessday and on Instagram – follow us @mastcellawarenessday
- Encourage patients and caregivers in your network to share this on their social media channels.
- Contact any doctors or nurses you know who are working with mast cell diseases and ask them to promote these materials to their network (some hospitals and clinics might be willing to send these out, but will need advance notice)
- Reach out to local news stations—television, radio, newspaper, etc.—and provide the materials to them. They may be willing to share the materials and might even want to report on Awareness Day.
Share your recognition and awareness-raising activities on social media with the below hashtags and be sure to tag and follow us on Facebook and Instagram – be sure to use the following hashtags in your post to help us find them: #mastocytosis #MCAS #MastCellDisease #TogetherInAwarenessTogetherInHope If you have any difficulties with accessing these, please contact us.
Download the Awareness Day logo in 16 languages
Our Awareness Day logo was intentionally crafted to include both “mastocytosis” and “mast cell diseases” in the same size font, for equal representation. The mast cell icon depicted has “vesicles” and seems to be spilling its contents during degranulation. The color purple was chosen to represent the color of the stain that researchers use in their slides. The Awareness Day logo is currently available in the following languages: Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovene and Spanish. Download the Awareness Day logo.
Share your photos with the International Community
Help us increase awareness of International Mastocytosis & Mast Cell Diseases Awareness Day and our global mast cell diseases community. Share your photos with us for our Awareness Day Photo Gallery and our Facebook and Instagram accounts. Email us your Awareness Day photos (make sure you seek permission from the people in the photos to share the photos with us).
The Awareness Day Ribbon
The Awareness Day ribbon has dots to represent the spots/hives/rashes that many mast cell patients deal with. The purple color represents the color stain that researchers use to identify mast cells.
Global Support
The Awareness Day Committee is expanding the Global Support page on our website to include support groups from all over the world. To have your support group considered, please send us your group details via our contact page. Include the group name, a short description of your purpose, website and social media links and a contact name and email address. Submit your support group for consideration.