MOOSOMIN - For almost five years now, Jessica Baird has been collecting socks and fundraising for research into autoimmune diseases all from her project, The Sock Project.
“Where I’m going with this project is to develop awareness, but also develop community amongst people who are living with autoimmune and chronic illnesses,” said Baird.
“I have also been fundraising for autoimmune research, for which I have raised $53,000.”
She said gifting socks to individuals who live with autoimmune diseases and chronic illness, helps them emotionally.
“It’s an emotional community that comes from it. I would say there’s three different caveats on that, there’s the piece that we live in a very social media online world, so getting the snail mail is one piece of it and it’s just nice to receive that.”
“Then there’s the piece of community that goes with it, where people are really appreciative of the socks and they understand the community aspect that goes with it.”
“Then there is the piece of someone who is out there in the world trying to bring awareness and do something about autoimmune diseases, because they’re not really well known,” Baird said.
Autoimmune disease is when the human body’s immune system mistakenly attacks normal, healthy cells.
Some well-known autoimmune diseases can include type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, lupus, and rheumatoid arthritis.
“You know we have lots of research, and it’s not a bad thing it’s a very good thing, that we have a lot of research on cancer and other things, but autoimmune diseases seem to be something that doesn’t have a lot of awareness or things going on for it,” Baird said.
“There is the Arthritis Society, there is the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation but, that’s about it when you look at it. Globally, there’s not a lot out there.
“It’s the sense of community where someone is helping other people and then there’s the global aspect where this person is working to help and try to speak for the people with these illnesses, to try and find a cure, because presently there’s no cure for autoimmune diseases.”
Although research has found treatments for individuals who live with autoimmune diseases and chronic illness, studies are still being done to find a cure for the condition.
How pairs of socks, helped Baird’s experience of autoimmunity
In 2017, after Baird had to leave work, she was diagnosed with Ankylosing Spondylitis—a rare type of arthritis that causes pain and stiffness in the spine.
“It took a whole year to get properly diagnosed, and I’ve been informed that’s really good,” said Baird.
“I was told by this Canadian autoimmune clinic in Ottawa that it takes a male on average eight years to get diagnosed, and a woman 10 years.”
“One of the issues that people struggle with these conditions, because it’s not very well known, is that many doctors think it could just be stress, or you are doing drugs. So it was an unusual year of these symptoms but I was really fortunate and did receive relatively good support.”
“But in that year, I was dealing with really unusual symptoms. I had rashes, I had joint pain, I had upper respiratory problems, and it was a lot of medical appointments of going back and forth to doctors,” she said.
During that year, Baird said the pairs of socks she received from family and friends helped her emotionally get through the process.
“Yes it does help other people but it also helped me. There’s the fact that yes I am helping other people but, it also allowed me to develop a community for myself as well and be able to speak with other people globally like what are you experiencing, what have been your symptoms, and just having that dialogue on social media as well.”
“It was also a support and a great piece to me, to have that community for myself.”
She said it is unique for someone like her to be diagnosed with the autoimmune disease of Ankylosing Spondylitis.
“It’s really interesting that I’m a woman living with Ankylosing Spondylitis, which happens to be a male dominated disease. It’s genetic based, it’s inflammatory arthritis of the SI (sacroiliac) joints, which is part of the spinal region,” said Baird.
She said one of the benefits of research being done over the years regarding autoimmune diseases is studies have found that symptoms of the condition, can appear in child bearing years for women. As such, doctors are able to detect the condition at an earlier age for women, than before.
Story behind The Sock Project
Baird talked about how The Sock Project came to light.
Based on her experience from receiving socks and how helpful it was for her, she wanted to pay it forward and help others.
“I felt as if I’m getting this support, then I probably can also be supporting other people with these illnesses,” Baird said.
“I was teaching elementary school and started having all these bizarre, strange medical symptoms. They couldn’t quite figure out the problem, so I left my teaching job for a whole year,” she said.
“In that time there was a girl friend of mine who has lupus disease, which is another auto immune disease, and she said go to the store and buy yourself one pair of funny socks, and where them to all of your medical appointments.”
“Instead of doing that, I reached out to people and all of my teaching friends, family, a lot of them were from Carleton, and they asked how can they help. I said send me fun silly socks to emotionally help me get through, and suddenly I started receiving thousands and thousands of these fun colorful socks to emotionally get me through the year.”
Within the last five years, Baird has received 10,000 pairs of socks and has donated 8,000 pairs of socks to individuals who live with autoimmune diseases and chronic illnesses.
“There’s also the piece of living with an autoimmune disease in a pandemic, of having to be extra careful and something that has been really difficult for people is that you can’t be on biologic or immunosuppressant drugs to get vaccinated.”
Baird said the pandemic has also caused another barrier for individuals who live with autoimmune diseases and chronic illness, because the medication they are on to help treat their conditions, conflict with the vaccine.
“You have to be off of immunosuppressants to get the vaccine, then you can go back on your medication but have to be back off of it again in order to get the second dose,” she said.
She said it is important for people to donate to project because there is currently no cure for autoimmune diseases.
“There is presently no cure to autoimmune diseases, we’re trying to get researchers to figure out if we can find a cure, or even just better treatments.”
Since her project has launched, Baird has now been teaching programs about autoimmune diseases, as well about Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA)—a form of arthritis in children.
“All these programs that I’m running and am teaching is in the faculty of education now.
She said what originally started out as a program, has now become a paid job, where she teaches groups about the condition, at universities or other facilities.
“Basically we gather together on Zoom and I tell people about the project, and then everyone gets mailed a pair of white socks and fabric markers. Then they’re asked who are you, what do you believe in, and why, to then design on the socks those questions.”
“It’s just amazing what people come back with of their designs, pictures that they put on their white socks, to express themselves and their stories. Suddenly you have this strong community.”
Baird can be reached at teacherjessicalynn@gmail.com for any questions regarding how to donate pairs of socks. To donate monetary funds her GoFundMe page is: https://gofund.me/0cf3027e.
