European Von Willebrand Disease (VWD) Awareness Day
In 2023 the European VWD Community marked its first Awareness Day, with the ambition to increase and improve diagnosis and treatment options at the European and national levels.
This celebration has been set by the EHC VWD Committee on the birthday of Erik Adolf von Willebrand, on 1 February, to raise global awareness of VWD.
European VWD Awareness Day 2024
Following the success of the previous first-ever campaign, on VWD Awareness Day the EHC unveiled the European VWD Community’s new motto and brand identity.
Besides, on 1 February 2024 the EHC VWD Committee and ERN-EuroBloodNet (European Reference Network on Rare Hematological Diseases) launched their new joint educational programme on Von Willebrand Disease with a webinar to talk about why and how VWD differs from haemophilia.
Speakers of the webinar were Prof Jeroen Eikenboom (Leiden University Medical Center, the Netherlands) and Baiba Ziemele (Latvia Hemophilia Society, EHC VWD Committee, WFH VWD Committee, ERN-EuroBloodNet ePAG).
European VWD Awareness Day 2023
For this first-ever campaign, the EHC VWD Committee had partnered with Agate Lielpētere, a Latvian visual artist, who shone a light on one of the primary VWD symptoms – bruising – and the psycho-social impact on all PwVWD.
The project How Did That Happen was specifically created to raise awareness ofVWD and all those impacted and affected by the condition.
We would like to thank our Slovenian NMO, Društvo Hemofilikov Slovenije, for supporting the VWD Committee in this campaign. We cannot be thankful enough to the Slovenian patients and family members for their cooperation, creativity, and willingness to make a difference for all PwVWD. Our special thanks to Matias Kavčič, Nadja, Matjaž, Nina, Janez Dolinšek, and Mojca.