TM Awareness Day in Virginia
Pamela New

The TM Support Group of Virginia has joined those of New York, Ohio, and Australia in establishing a TM Awareness Day.  After two years of hard work, many proclamation drafts and through two different administrations, Governor Timothy Kaine of The Commonwealth of Virginia, declared June 6, 2006 to be TM Awareness Day in The Commonwealth!

We began this effort more than two years ago when Mark Warner was our Governor.  We began with the New York and Australia proclamations to develop a good working document.  We revised and updated the information from publications posted on the TMA web site.  The VA Support Group provided wonderful feedback and encouragement for this work.  This day is truly for all of us!

I was thrilled when I received notification from the Governor’s Special Assistant announcing that our proclamation was passed by our General Assembly and then signed by the Governor.  We are thrilled and proud of the latest TM Awareness Day for the TMA community. 

The next major project of the TM Support Group in Virginia will be an effort to raise awareness about Transverse Myelitis in Virginia’s medical community.  We are going to focus our efforts on emergency room physicians and ER personnel.  I am a nurse.  Our program will be initiated at the hospital where I served as a nurse manager.  The TM Support Group of Virginia begins the next journey!