Denim-clad medical professionals from Masterton Medical, Medlab and The Chemists showed their support for Rare Disease Day yesterday by wearing jeans to work and donating $2 each to the cause.
Masterton Medical Care Plus nurse Glenda Campbell said despite a lack of sleep after supporting Relay for Life at the weekend,
everybody had been "very supportive".
"We charged $2 for those wearing jeans and more for those who didn't - if they forgot, they were penalised, but it's all in good sport," she said.
The centre also sold raffle tickets for a stack of firewood, and a "luxury raffle". Organiser Chris Anstis, from Opaki Community, a group formed in support of rare disease sufferer Allyson Lock, said they would be selling more raffle tickets outside New World on Thursday and Friday.
The funds raised from the raffles will help Mrs Lock, who has Pompe disease, get to the US for a drug trial for a drug called BMN-701.
The disease stops her body from producing enough of the enzyme which is responsible for the breakdown of glycogen (sugars) in her body, and this builds up in her muscles, slowly killing off the muscle tissue which results in her body getting weaker.
Only four people in New Zealand have Pompe disease.
Rare diseases are life-threatening or chronically debilitating diseases. Because of the low occurrence of each disease, medical experts are rare, knowledge is scarce and research is limited.
To help raise awareness, the international Rare Disease Day campaign was initiated by the European Organisation for Rare Diseases in 2008, and has since been organised annually on the last day of February.
