On March 1, a substantial group of lupus advocates and members of the Lupus Foundation of America will converge on Capitol Hill. In concert with sharing stories about lupus and describing daily life with the disease, the group will urge Congress to allocate more money for lupus research and education.

Lupus is a widespread, chronic and life-threatening autoimmune disease that affects approximately 1.5 million Americans, particularly women.

My daughter is one of those women, having been diagnosed with the disease in 1999 when she was 21 years old. Since her diagnosis, we have been introduced to scores of other people who also are afflicted with lupus.

When I think about advances in technology and medical research over the past few decades, I am astonished by the fact that there have been no new drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration specifically for lupus in nearly 40 years.

There is hope, however, that safer and more effective therapies will be available in the near future. A healthy pipeline of potential new drugs is in various stages of clinical development.

This news could not come at a better time. We need more research, and we need more medicine.

The Lupus Foundation of America is urging people to bring family members and friends to Capitol Hill for Lupus Advocacy Day. Those who attend will spend March 1 visiting the senators and representatives from their states to urge them to support more funding for lupus research and education.

Since most of us cannot be there in person, I want to take this opportunity to ask you to put your support in writing.

Please write to our local senators and representatives and stress how vital it is to support lupus research and boost federal funding to open the doors for an eventual cure.

Wendy Lynds

Littleton