Meet Cathy Orr | Co-Owner, Personalized Cause, Inc.

We had the good fortune of connecting with Cathy Orr and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Cathy, how did you come up with the idea for your business?
I have lupus. So, too, does my daughter. When we were first diagnosed, there were few medications available to treat many autoimmune diseases, including lupus. And there was very little understanding of the symptoms and triggers that caused this disease to be so unpredictable. Even criteria for diagnosing the disease were a challenge. According to the Lupus Foundation of America (2021), lupus symptoms can be unclear, come and go, and change. On average, a lupus diagnosis takes nearly six years from the time a person first notices lupus symptoms. A majority (63%) of people surveyed with lupus report being incorrectly diagnosed. That’s why it’s important to raise awareness and be your own advocate.

Many sites form for a specific cause or disease because someone near and dear to our hearts is struggling. This is somewhat our story, but not entirely. We created this site because of lupus, but it does not exclusively function as a lupus site. Instead, it functions as a space where medical, animal, mental health and social cause advocates can come together to advocate on behalf of themselves or others. Using simple pins, ribbons and wristbands, in both personalized and non-personalized versions, we call attention to the unseen faces behind these very important causes.