Why 29 February? Why Brussels?
Rare Disease Day has, over the past four years, become an important date on the rare disease calendar. Indeed, Rare Disease Day has developed into an internationally recognised awareness-raising campaign for the whole rare disease community. Rare Disease Day takes place each year on the last day of February. We see this day as being the perfect opportunity to maximize the synergy between these two events.
Launching the EURORDIS Gala Dinner in 2012 will not only be symbolic in terms of the date: 29 February, 2012; the rarest day on the calendar, but will also coincide with the 5-year anniversary of Rare Disease Day and the 15-year anniversary of EURORDIS.
In-keeping with EURORDIS’ mission to build a strong pan-European community of patient organisations and people living with rare diseases and to be their voice at the European level, it was evident to us that the EURORDIS Gala Dinner should take place in Brussels: capital city of the European Union.
In addition, the EURORDIS Gala Dinner is the only charitable dinner held in Brussels for a truly “European” organisation in the field of rare diseases, thus emphasising its rarity.