Chronic Illness Awareness Week September 14-18, 2009

Chronically Ill Are Perfect Audience for
Virtual Conference, September 14-18

A virtual conference is not the results of budget cuts for National Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week, but the result of what benefits the most people who live with illness.

SEPT 2009-SAN DIEGO - Hard beds, traveling expenses, long walks to conference rooms, peers going overboard on the perfume, and extreme fatigue are predictably part of your average conference. For the chronically ill, however, these inconveniences oftentimes make attending an actual conference impossible. National Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week celebrates its seventh year, and with the power of social networking, 009's "virtual" conference September 14-18, 2009 is sure to be a success.

"I can only leave the house once a week, twice if I am really lucky, so a weeklong conference is normally impossible for me," says Juliann Krute who lives with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and many other illnesses. "Having a conference that I can attend-even if I am in too much pain to get out of bed-is fantastic!"

The conference will feature twenty live seminars via Blog Talk Radio that anyone around the globe can listen to LIVE or archived. The 2008 workshops have had over 12,000 listeners and are also available on iTunes.

Topics for 2009's conference include:

• Applying and Winning Disability Assistance When You Are Chronically Ill
  
• Managing College with a Chronic Illness
  
• Find the Job You Desire and Can Do
  
• It's OK to say NO: Building Healthy Boundaries
  
• Coping with Chronic Illness in Your Marriage

Guest speakers are some of the top chronic illness advocates online today including Jenni Prokopy of chronicababe.com

; Rosalind Joffe of keepworkinggirlfriend.com

; Maureen Pratt, author of Peace in the Storm, and Christine Miserandino of butyoudontlooksick.com

. They are joined by.Kelly Rouba, former Ms. Wheelchair NJ 2007, and best-selling authors on marriage, Bill and Pam Farrel.

Invisible Illness Week was founded by and is sponsored by Rest Ministries, the largest Christian organization that serves the chronically ill.

Lisa Copen, 40, founder of Rest Ministries and creator behind National Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week says, "Regardless of where one's spiritual ties are, there is an fundamental human desire to feel understood, to feel like those you love have some idea about what you are going through." Copen, who is explored this in her book Why Can't I Make People Understand: Discovering the Validation Those With Chronic Illness Seek and Why

says, "One of the most difficult adjustments to illness is that you feel life is passing you by and no one around you even realizes it. We hope through our conference we can provide a place where people find the true source of being validated in their pain, how to live joyfully despite their illness, and of course, we want to increase awareness about how many suffer silently. Like our theme says, 'A Little Help Gives a Lot of Hope.' It really does."

For more details about the free conference and other resources visit www.invisibleillnessweek.com