This year the Kiss Goodbye to MS global community really came together as one, working side by side as part of the worldwide effort to raise funds for MS research.
The Aussie founded campaign was held in 15 countries across the globe and we couldn’t be more proud. We joined forces again with Canada, United States, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Spain, UK, Netherlands, Greece, Ireland, France, New Zealand and we were thrilled to welcome Egypt and Lebanon to Kiss Goodbye to MS.
Seeing our campaign grow each year and being celebrated all over the world, makes us feel very confident and excited for the future landscape of MS research and the lasting impact our combined efforts will have for people living with MS. Kiss Goodbye to MS doesn’t know any cultural or geographical boundaries. We all work as one in order to strengthen and grow our momentum, to increase funding for MS research. We embrace different ideas and beliefs and take learnings from each other to maximize the impact of Kiss Goodbye to MS globally.
This year’s campaign ran a variety of activations which were celebrated internationally, including Red Lab Coat Day which kicked off Kiss Goodbye to MS and MS awareness month on May 1st. We saw researchers from the Netherlands, Ireland, New Zealand and Australia change their white lab coats to red lab coats and our Kiss Goodbye to MS community joined us in celebrating their hard work. We changed it up a little this year and introduced the ‘Battle of the Labs’ to our Aussie researchers and asked them to create videos showcasing their MS research. Nine fabulous and highly creative videos were submitted and the MS community voted for their favourite on our website. Red Lab Coat Day is our annual day where we stop for a moment to say thank you to our MS researchers across the world and highlight the significant contributions and invaluable work of our Australian researchers to find a cure for MS.
Another highlight of this year’s campaign saw our Kiss Goodbye to MS community across the world put on their game face to raise awareness for MS research and reach over 400,000 people on social media. People with MS put on their game face every single day, often hiding their many invisible symptoms which come with the disease. We challenged our global community and received hundreds of photos and videos with people applying their game face – young and old, on their own or together, at home or while surfing, our MS Squad took it to the next level and surprised us with their creativity.
The success of our Aussie campaign is a testament to all of the hard work you all put in across the globe to raise the profile of MS and emphasise the importance of research into prevention, better treatments and a cure for MS. This is only the beginning, as we won’t stop until we find a cure for MS. Watch Kiss Goodbye to MS take on the world!
