We are excited to announce that this month’s Jeans Day is put on by first-time time host, Matt, from our Client Experience Coordinator team. He decided to go with a charity that is close to his heart. His sister runs a charity called Haunts for Hope that donates to the Boston Children’s Hospital. She founded this charity in honor of her daughter who was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s Disease. Please read the bio below that Matt’s sister wrote for the charity and about the disease.
Last year, my 10 year old daughter was diagnosed with the autoimmune disease Hashimoto’s. This was something that I had never heard of. After meeting with her wonderful doctor at Boston Children’s Hospital, we were informed that there is no cure for her; however, it can be managed by taking synthetic hormones for the rest of her life! Of course, this was not something any parent would want to hear. After just a month of taking her medication, she was the happy little girl that she once was before her diagnosis.
To give you a little background, Hashimoto’s is an autoimmune disease that affects your thyroid. It’s a version of hypothyroidism meaning your pituitary gland, which is found in your brain, sends signals to your thyroid so that it can release hormones. However, with Hashimoto’s, your thyroid is receiving the messages from your brain but it is not producing hormones and that causes your brain to work overtime by sending more signals to your thyroid. This causes one to become tired, irritable, have memory loss and, without the hormones being released, slows down development such as puberty.
Once we started to share our story with others, we realized how common Hashimoto’s was and how we needed to do something to help researchers find out what causes this and potentially find a cure. That is when we started Haunts for Hope, a community fundraiser where 100% of our proceeds go directly to Boston Children’s Hospital.
Our family has a weird love for Halloween and every year we decorate our yard for all to see. We even dress up in costume to scare visitors. Last year we accepted donations and we were able to raise $3,400 for the endocrinology department at Boston Children’s Hospital. This year we want to expand Haunts for Hope and raise even more, not just for the endocrinology department, for any department in the hospital that is in need of funds. My daughter who is now 11 explained to her class this year why we started Haunts for Hope, I will leave you with her own words:
“We did a charity for Boston Children’s Hospital because we care about people. There are a lot of kids in that hospital that need help. Some kids can’t go outside and play. The money we raised will help them get better and have fun.”
Keep an eye out for our team wearing jeans next Friday, November 22nd, supporting Haunts for Hope!