The Run for Resilience Ostomy 5k is back to celebrate Ostomy Awareness Day this October! Join us for the Worldwide Virtual Ostomy 5k you can do anywhere or attend a festive in-person event near you! Start a team and fundraiser with family, friends, support groups or coworkers! (Registration fees are refunded for raising just $150) These events are a key fundraiser to support the programs and services of United Ostomy Associations of America, Inc. Raise ostomy awareness with us!

This year’s theme is One Community – Stronger Together and many in-person events feature raffles and the opportunity to visit with ostomy product manufacturers at their sponsor tables. Register for the Virtual Ostomy 5k by the deadline of September 23, 2026! We’ll send you a bib and number in the mail. In-person events nationwide are open for registration up until event day but it is now past the t-shirt deadline.

You can also support the cause and resilience of the community with a donation.

Make your state part of the movement this October by asking your governor to issue a state proclamation or letter of support for Ostomy Awareness Day on Saturday, October 3, 2026! Learn more on how to take action! Every state has a different process. Our toolkit explains the steps to obtain a proclamation with links for each state’s guidelines, provides a sample proclamation and more. Download the toolkit. If you just need the sample proclamation, download a template in Word or PDF format.

Please let us know if you submit a request with your governor at advocacy@ostomy.org and we will change your state’s status on the map.

We are stronger together and our voices deserve to be heard. Please join UOAA and other national stakeholders in our advocacy efforts to keep ostomy and urological supplies out of competitive bidding.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) continues to move forward with implementing competitive bidding of ostomy and urological supplies through less than 10 national suppliers.

We want to show Medicare the widespread opposition to competitive bidding of these supplies! Make your voice heard by adding your name to the national petition.

Click on this link to sign.

Want to keep up-to-date on this advocacy effort? Join UOAA’s Advocacy Network.

This Ostomy Awareness Day you never need to feel alone! Join in on a special UOAA National Support Group Meeting to celebrate the day wherever you are!

Our two guest speakers will be Nate Hadlock, 2026 UOAA Ostomy Awareness Day Champion and Kimberly Holiday-Coleman our 2024 Champion. 

Together, we’ll celebrate the strength, resilience, and diverse experiences of people living with ostomies while creating an opportunity to learn, connect, and support one another.

Saturday, October 3, 2026

4:00 PM Pacific | 5:00 PM Mountain | 6:00 PM Central | 7:00 PM Eastern

Virtual via Zoom

Register Here

Following the presentations, attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions and participate in an open discussion. Click here for information on privacy, how to join, special needs, and what to expect. Questions? email oa@ostomy.org.

In addition to this virtual gathering. We encourage everyone to join and volunteer at a local UOAA Affiliated Support Groups in your community.

UOAA invites you to post images on social media or make a collaborative video with people who who have joined you on your ostomy or contient diversion journey. Your ostomy friends, family, caregivers, support group clinicians etc. because community is everything.

Add some flair and use this year’s Giphy stickers on social or at giphy.com.

Please tag and DM UOAA! Use the hashtags #OstomyDay2026 and #OstomyCommunity when you share your community and #OAD2026 #OstomyAwarenessDay or #Ostomy5k for other personal posts. Not on social media? Reply to our Storyprompt or email us at info@ostomy.org to join the community collage.

• Facebook: @UOAAinc
• Instagram @uoaa_
• x @UOAA
• LinkedIn
• TikTok @uoaa_ostomy
• YouTube @TheUOAAInc

However you share your story expect it to have a powerful impact. Everyone with an ostomy or continent diversion is unique and so is how they raise awareness. Please share your creativity with us on how you celebrate the day!

The Wound, Ostomy, and Continence Nurses Society™ (WOCN®) is hosting WOCN Ostomy Education Day 2026, a free, virtual event on Saturday, October 3 from 10:00 AM – 5:20 PM ET. Gain evidence-based ostomy care strategies, tackle complex case studies, and earn Continuing Education credits. No specialty certification or WOCN membership is required to attend.

Key Topics: Stoma site selection, pouch leakage prevention, convex products, IBD, pediatric care, and bonus content on Colostomy Irrigation
Credits: 8.0 Contact Hours & 1.5 Pharmacology Credits
Access: Watch live and enjoy 90 days of on-demand access
Register for free >>

Show Off Your Stoma Sticker

As a National Individual of Medical Professional Member of UOAA, you are helping us to achieve our goals to support, educate, empower and advocate for people who have or will have ostomy or continent diversion surgery. By joining UOAA, you will also help increase the influence and voice the ostomy community has on a national level.

Discover the Benefits and Join

Spread ostomy awareness and connect people in your community to ostomy support groups and information.

Reach out to your local newspaper, TV, radio station or website and share your story and the resources of ostomy.org. You’ll be amazed by the power of your story!

You could also work behind the scenes by sharing our Ostomy Awareness PSA videos with your local TV outlets. Contact ed.pfueller@ostomy.org for a video file with the specs that your station asks for and if need any other media outreach tips. 

You’re not alone! Peer support is often critical to success in life with an ostomy. You can find community at a UOAA Affiliated Support Group near you. Search the Support Group Finder!

Find an Ostomy Friend or Be an Ostomy Friend. If you want to be that support person that you never had, you can take UOAA’s Ostomy Friend Online Training program to become a friend in the Team Hope program. Learn more and find a friend!

UOAA efforts to raise awareness wouldn’t be possible without the inspiration and generosity of the ostomy community. Choose ‘Ostomy Awareness Fund’ to direct your contribution to our mission. Your dollars help get our New Ostomy Patient Guide into the hands of those who need it the most and to spread ostomy awareness to new sectors of the medical field and society at large. Your donation also supports annual events such as Ostomy Awareness Day. https://www.ostomy.org/donate/

PDF File:  OAD-Infographic-2024-NO-OAD

You could even print out our friendly Sailor_Ostomy Pouch and name it after your own stoma, and take photos with it around town Flat Stanley style.