My Story
I've had to watch someone very close to me suffer daily because of an "invisible" condition. A condition not only poorly understood in the medical space, but most people in general have never even heard of it. I hadn't heard of it either, until 3 years ago, when she told me that she had been diagnosed. A young, beautiful woman, being told she is in for a life of constant pain and potential fertility issues, is traumatising to any woman, but even more so a young woman with her whole life ahead of her. Witnessing somebody you love transition from mild to severe Endometriosis is heart-breaking, it has a huge impact on her daily life. The pain is constant and she's been in daily pain for her entire adult life. This led to not being able to make plans as she wouldn’t know how she would feel from one day to the next or having to cut these plans short due to bleeding or pain flaring up. The relationships with everybody close to her being disrupted because of this causing additional mental strain being placed on her. The mental strain is the toughest aspect of it all, seeing a young woman's dreams and rights slowly being stripped from her, is debilitating, heart-breaking and traumatic. Those who have Endometriosis or those supporting women with this condition provides this overwhelming feeling of helplessness. There is not enough support out there for the women experiencing this life-altering condition or for the partners, friends and family members too. 

Annie & Larry Rabbets Story
In the past, Annie suffered from Adenomyosis & Endometriosis, which severely impacted her ability to live a reasonably everyday life. It took eight years to get diagnosed. They were fortunate that it could be treated after 12 years. Unfortunately, others are not as lucky as they were.

Larry saw a post on the iRacing forums where I talked about Endometriosis and this campaign to raise awareness for the condition by participating in Daytona 24h, asking for as many teams to support the cause via donations to a charity and racing for it.

Larry reached out to me to show support and decided to combine our efforts to raise awareness for this debilitating condition. The Snail Community will be entering several teams to raise further awareness.

For Shadow
Annie wanted to call this project For Shadow, Endometriosis & Adenomyosis is very personal and a lot of people do not talk or want to talk about it. For Shadow is Annie’s way of saying, “This is for everyone following the same journey as Annie”.

Watch this here: https://youtu.be/Ldmb5SVw4t8

What is Endometriosis?
Endometriosis is a common gynaecological condition affecting an estimated ~10 percent of women of childbearing age. The name of this condition comes from the word "endometrium," which is the tissue that lines the uterus.

During a woman's regular menstrual cycle, this tissue builds up and is shed if she does not become pregnant. Women with endometriosis develop tissue that looks and acts like endometrial tissue outside of the uterus, usually on other reproductive organs inside the pelvis or in the abdominal cavity. Each month, this misplaced tissue responds to the hormonal changes of the menstrual cycle by building up and breaking down just as the endometrium does, resulting in small bleeding inside of the pelvis. This leads to inflammation, swelling and scarring of the normal tissue surrounding the endometriosis implants. 

When the ovary is involved, blood can become embedded in the normal ovarian tissue, forming a "blood blister" surrounded by a fibrous cyst, called an endometrioma. This can cause:

• Irritation
  
• Scar formations
• Adhesions, in which tissue binds your pelvic organs together
• Severe pain
• Fertility problems

There is currently no cure for Endometriosis and only treatments are available to aid pain and fertility issues.

Why are we racing for Endometriosis?
Endometriosis can often be misdiagnosed or unnoticed for many years by medical professionals. Endometriosis effects an estimated ~10 percent of women of childbearing age. This is a staggering number of women and yet if you said the term “Endometriosis” to most people, especially men, they aren’t even aware of its existence. Raising awareness of this condition while competing in a male-dominated event will hopefully bring this condition to light for many men. Most of these men will be fathers, husbands, managers etc. and making this condition known to them will hopefully provide more support, empathy and understanding for the women who have to endure this condition on a daily basis. 

I hope that in the future, many more people will know about endometriosis and that it is taken as seriously as other conditions. I would like to see more employers recognising this debilitating condition and putting support in place for their staff. I would like to see medical professionals become more aware of the condition to prevent long-term misdiagnosis as on it can take many years to be diagnosed with this condition. The diagnosis time needs to be cut down. Medical professionals should be considering endometriosis when patients present symptoms and more funding is needed for research but also supporting those with Endometriosis and their support bubble too. 

What and when is the event?
The event we are participating in will be a 24-hour race which will be held on the iRacing race simulation platform on Saturday 22nd Jan 2022 @ 12pm.  Every year, iRacing hosts a special event called the 24 Hours of Daytona. This is a 24-hour endurance race held at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. This aims to replicate the real-life 24 Hours of Daytona event in the USA. Last years special event attracted over 1500 virtual teams from across the world.

The team representing this cause will be named “Endometriosis x RevolutionSimRacing”, will consist of 4 drivers (including myself) and we will be virtually driving the DallaraP217 LMP2 car. The car itself will be undergoing a transformation from the usual RevolutionSimRacing livery to an adapted pink livery in tribute for this event, a big thank you to Konstantin Stolzenberg for getting this made.

Event Details
Session: Saturday 22nd January - 12pm GMT
Warmup: 30 Minutes
Qualifying: Attached & Solo - 8 Minutes for 2 Laps
Race: 24 Hours
Team Event: Yes (min 2 drivers and max 16)
Stop and Go Limit: 100 incs and every 20 after
DQ Limit: None
Field Size : 50

Car Class Information
LMP2:
Dallara P217

GTD:
Audi R8 LMS
BMW M4 GT3
Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020
Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO
McLaren MP4-12C GT3
Mercedes AMG GT3
Porsche 911 GT3 R

The entire event will be livestreamed on Twitch - https://www.twitch.tv/joezarkos_rsr

Partners/Support
RevolutionSimRacing - www.revolutionsimracing.com
Endometriosis UK - www.endometriosis-uk.org
Registered charity no 1035810 in England and Wales.