The New York Jets and Lupus Research Alliance will host Lupus Awareness Day on Thursday, September 19, 2024, at MetLife Stadium when the Jets take on the New England Patriots. This event is designed to increase awareness of the devastating autoimmune disease and help raise funds supporting lupus research for new treatments and ultimately a cure.
To further this goal, the Jets 50/50 Raffle presented by Helix Wireless, an official IoT Provider of the New York Jets, will benefit the Lupus Research Alliance. At each Jets home game, fans can purchase 50/50 raffle tickets three hours prior to kickoff through the beginning of the fourth quarter. One lucky fan will split the jackpot with the Lupus Research Alliance. For rules and more information go to nyjets.com/5050raffle.
Additionally, several representatives of the Lupus Research Alliance will be recognized at the Game. Top fundraisers from the organization's ManyOne Can Walk with Us to Cure Lupus program will be honored on the video board. Serving as an honorary team captain for the game will be LRA Board member Veronica Vargas Lupo who has lupus herself. The donation from the 50/50 Raffle will be presented to another LRA Board member Joseph Mauriello and his daughter, Claudine, who also lives with lupus.
The Jets are deeply committed to supporting the Lupus Research Alliance, the world's leading private funder of innovative research that can make a difference for people living with lupus. To date, the organization has committed over $259 million to lupus research projects at top universities, medical schools, and hospitals throughout the world. Because the Lupus Research Alliance Board of Directors funds all administrative and fundraising costs, 100% of all donations received goes to support lupus research programs. With the organization's support, pioneering investigations have led to significant discoveries that the way to better diagnostics, improved treatments, and one day a cure.
Lupus is a chronic, complex autoimmune disease that affects millions of people worldwide. More than 90% of lupus sufferers are women; lupus is often first diagnosed during the years of 15 to 44. Women of color are especially at risk. In lupus, the immune system, meant to defend against infections, produces antibodies that mistakenly recognize the body's own cells as foreign, prompting other immune cells to attack and potentially damage organs such as the kidneys, brain, heart, lungs, blood, skin, and joints.
For more information about the Lupus Research Alliance, please call 646-884-6000 or visit www.lupusresearch.org.
