”FLUSH-IT”
by Sonja Thybo Thomsen, CCF Denmark

On the 8. October 2008 at 4 pm the Crohn and Colitis Association in Denmark (CCF) revealed their new homepage www.flush-it.dk at “Raadhuspladsen” (town hall square) in Copenhagen. The Danish Minister of Health and Prevention , Mr. Jakob Axel Nielsen opened the event with a speech, after which a toilet “relay race” on a wheeled electrical toilet was organized with four competing teams: Politicians, “celebrities” (from sports and cultural life in Denmark) our Youth Group and the Board members from CCF. The whole event was very funny. The baton that the four teams had to pass on from one team member to another was a roll of toilet paper. The “celebrities” won the relay race, and they can now refer to themselves as world champions of toilet relay racing. The press including Danish national radio, local TV-stations, news papers and magazines were present to cover the event. It is difficult to describe the atmosphere during the event. It was just one of those things that need to be experienced personally. However, everybody present just felt the experience to be really extraordinary and very BIG. Earlier on the day we had placed ten toilets, each with a mummy sitting wrapped completely in toilet paper. The toilet relay race event attracted a very large crowd of people, thereby spreading attention, information and knowledge about the Crohn and Colitis diseases, as well as the problems and needs of the people who suffer from these diseases, to people we would otherwise not be able to reach. The toilet paper used for the event was donated to us.

www.flush-it.dk is a homepage for people with Crohn and Colitis, their families and of course also people who just want to learn more about the two diseases. The homepage is a result of an exceptional cooperation involving CCF Denmark and the pharmaceutical company ABBOTT Denmark. www.flush-it.dk is built up like the well known encylopedia Wikipedia, except that the information on the website is controlled completely by CCF, as CCF must ensure that the information presented is correct. WWW.Flush-it.dk is also a tool where you can find information about the locations of available toilets all over Denmark. We all know how difficult it can be to find a toilet when you really need one, especially if you are in a place you do not know, in a city you have not been in before or on the road moving from one place to another. Now you can use www.flush-it.dk to plan your next trip. For example, if I want to visit Copenhagen, I can now use the website to locate the available toilets. I can print a map over Copenhagen showing me the available toilets, and thereby making it possible for me to have a nice and relaxed trip to Copenhagen without having to worry about what to do if I should come in a situation where I need access to a toilet urgently (as often happens). Right now you can only use it via the internet, but later we are going to provide access via GPS navigations systems as well. When this is implemented, you can use your mobile phone to help you navigate to find the nearest toilet (given that your mobile phone supports GPS of course). At www.flush-it.dk you can order a toilet card, so you do not have to explain why you need a toile. You just have to show the card if anyone asks for it.

If you have a Facebook profile you can join www.flush-it.dk from there too. Nadeena from our Youth Group is the administrator of that page. We are 172 members in the Facebook group now.

At present time www.flush-it.dk is only offered in Danish, but we are working on getting sponsorships and donations that will allow us to have the site translated into English too.

The Board of CCF Denmark could not have organized this event without the fantastic cooperation and help from ABBOTT Denmark, and communications advisers Dreyer and Kvetny, all the members of CCF volunteering to assist, and finally but the least all our sponsors. Right now we are preparing our 20th anniversary of the CCF, which will take place in March 2009. In connection with this we will organize a conference with participation of politicians, medical doctors and patients. The conference theme will be “Taboo”. We are also planning an Event next summer, which will take place on different beaches around in Denmark. The exact content of the beach event is still very secret, but the overall aim again is to promote knowledge and information about the Crohn and Colitis diseases to a broader public.

This contribution to Speakers Corner is also published in the EFCCA Newsletter. Read more about EFCCA at www.efcca.org