It’s not only here that I spend my time, you can often find me lurking at the back-end of SWAN UK’s website, tinkering with it, adding things to it, occasionally breaking it, but ultimately (I hope) working away to put my skills to use to help make a real difference to not only families who are currently in the same situation we are, but also to those who will start down this road in the future.

Lauren and I occasionally share wish lists… grand projects and aims that we are focused on bringing about in the future, which seem distinctly ambitious at the moment, but seeing how far we have come already, definitely not impossible. Only 7 months ago, sat around a table with the rest of the SWAN advisory committee I thought the same about hosting blog awards and plans for celebrating Undiagnosed Children’s Awareness Day. Yet the blog awards have happened, and the winners will be announced on 13th April 2013… which is Undiagnosed Children’s Awareness Day. I’ve had great fun designing the logo and ribbon for this, which you can see above.

With enough determination (and late nights) anything can be achieved, I truly believe that. It is with that in mind that I hope that this is just the first ripple of a wave of change that is to follow, and will ultimately see undiagnosed children and their families supported and given access to services in the same way as a diagnosed child would and then eventually in the same way that any child would regardless of their ability.

To celebrate Undiagnosed Children’s Awareness Day we are asking people to help us get people talking. The blue and pink colours of SWAN have been adopted for the day and we’re asking that you take pictures of yourself or your children wearing pink or blue clothes and share them far and wide. If you fancy raising a bit of money for SWAN UK, then all the better. Come and join me on twitter or Facebook on Saturday, grab a ribbon, badge or banner to let as many people as possible know what’s going on.

Of course for a lot of families, bringing up a child with an undiagnosed condition is part of every day life, not just one day in a year. We are therefore going to link up posts written by parents from all over the world sharing a glimpse of their family lives to try and increase understanding about what life can be like. This link up will be open for the whole year because reaching out to other families who haven’t found us yet, and professionals who haven’t heard about us yet is something that needs to be an ongoing process.

Please feel free to add your posts, or posts that you’ve come across, and of course share the link and spread the word!