Blog #13: I’ve joined the Migraine World Summit team

Photo: Okay, the Migraine World Summit team is remote, so there’ll be no drinks and chat around a physical table. But I thought this image was more appealing than one of me sitting alone in my home-office wearing a hoodie with my cat as my co-worker…

This week I completed 2 on-boarding meetings and now I’m officially part of the Migraine World Summit volunteer copywriting team.

I’m very excited!

As the name suggests, the Migraine World Summit is an annual international event whose mission is simple: To reduce the global burden of migraine. What a perfect mission.

The summit runs over 10 days during March each year and brings together leading migraine experts from around the world. Each day the summit focuses on one migraine topic and features interviews with health professionals. Check out the 2020 schedule to see what topics were covered this year.

My path to the Migraine World Summit

Last year I was listening to a migraine podcast while out walking. I wish I could remember which one so I could give it a plug here. The podcast hosts talked about the Migraine World Summit and what they’d learnt, so when I got home I visited the summit website and realised what an incredible wealth of information was available there.

Fast forward to March 2020, which was a crazy time for everyone. Thanks to COVID-19 I was busy writing COVID policies and updates for a not-for-profit client, bracing myself for the inevitable home-schooling and trying to get as much client work done before we went into lockdown. I didn’t get a chance to watch the summit but thought I’d purchase it to watch later in the year.

Note: Each summit interview is available to view for free for 24 hours. For full access to watch the videos anytime you can purchase the whole summit.

Because of COVID-19 the Migraine World Summit organisers replayed the summit, in full, in June. I wrote about watching the summit in this blog, so I won’t go into much detail, except to say I learnt an incredible amount. The summit also highlighted how much work there is to do in New Zealand to improve migraine care for us Kiwis. In June I was also working on launching this blog so knowing about all the improvements in migraine treatments over the past few years gave me more motivation to push ‘publish’ on Migraine Down Under.

Since starting Migraine Down Under I’ve been fortunate to connect with many people in New Zealand and overseas in the migraine world. In this blog, I wrote about connecting with Carl from Migraine and Headache Australia. Carl is also the founder of the Migraine World Summit, and during one of our first conversations I told him I’d love to be involved in the summit. After I wrote an article about Botox and chronic migraine for Migraine and Headache Australia I must have ticked a couple of writing skills boxes and thankfully Carl and the Migraine World Summit team took me up on the offer and now I’m part of the copywriting team.

How I hope this will help New Zealanders

Of course, on a personal level I’m excited to be part of the team. I’m working hard to improve my own migraine disease and minimise the frequency and intensity of my attacks. Understanding all I can about migraine is key. Knowledge is power right.

I also have 2 boys aged 10 and nearly 9. Unfortunately, they’ve inherited migraine genes from both sides of the family, so I have an overwhelming urge to make sure if they develop migraine they have the best care available to them in NZ. My husband is Australian so we could always take advantage of their dual Kiwi/Aussie DNA and access care in Australia if we needed, but that’s not the goal!

But for you as a New Zealander reading this, my biggest goal is to learn as much as I can about migraine disease, what’s happening internationally and use that to help all of us.

It’s an opportunity to learn from the best international patient advocates and translate that into improved advocacy and awareness in New Zealand. To create some real change in New Zealand I need to arm myself with as much knowledge as I can, understand the true burden of disease, stay up-to-date with the international migraine landscape and basically have a Kiwi hat in the ring of a great network of people who have that one simple mission. Creating true change in New Zealand is a marathon, not a sprint. Luckily I’ve got a couple of good pairs of sneakers. 

I encourage you to register for the Migraine World Summit updates in the lead up to next year’s summit. Each week you receive a weekly email that focuses on one topic covered in this year’s summit. They hit my inbox every week and they’re a great resource. 

And talking about newsletters (perfect segue there right), you can now sign up below to receive one from me. I know, I know, our inbox gets so full of e-newsletters and stuff but I promise it’ll be good, or at least not really bad. I’m creating some content for the first newsletter, though I’m not sure when it’ll hit your inbox (as I type this there’s 45 days till Christmas!).

You can also join us on Facebook, on the Migraine Down Under page or the private New Zealand headache and migraine support group.

And like always, please feel free to email me: sarah@sayline.co.nz.