Our brief was to create an initiative for the 5th anniversary of Spinraza’s launch that highlighted the strides patients have made over the last five years. Our objectives were to focus on patient achievements, changing the narrative around what life with SMA is like. The aim was to give patients, caregivers, and importantly healthcare providers, a sense of pride for what they’ve achieved, as well as hope for both the present and the future.

Patients with Spinal Muscular Atrophy were for years condemned to an inevitable loss of bodily functions that would eventually disable and kill them. Thanks to novel therapies such as Spinraza, motor function loss was able to be slowed and sometimes maintained, keeping patients well for longer and broadening what was possible in their lives.

This travel guide collection transformed real patient stories into practical travel guide entries worthy of Lonely Planet, mingling creativity with realism to create inspiration. Our work aims to inspire SMA patients, doctors, and caregivers, showing them that patients are capable of more than just therapeutic journeys. This inclusive vision of tourism leverages the expertise of four different writing disciplines: copywriting, scientific writers, travel journalists, and inspiring patients. With this varied insight, we strove to empower SMA patients with an aspirational tool that offered concrete steps to getting out into the world, while also convincing doctors to start seeing their patients in a new light.

The creation of a travel guide designed solely for SMA patients was huge because for the first time they saw representations of themselves out in the world, where before they were often depicted as feeble and homebound.

Through the simple act of showing an SMA patient traveling around their home city or abroad to another, we empower patients and caregivers to dare to do more while at the same time challenging the perception of healthcare professionals who are wary about the success their patients can achieve out in the world.

This was a huge achievement against our objectives, which tasked us with highlighting the improvements SMA patients have made over the years since the advent of new and better therapies. More than just showing patients “doing better” we offered a tool and call-to-action that inspired other patients to do the same with concrete, tangible advice.