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What happens to your story from the moment you submit it
At the American Pain & Disability Foundation, patient stories are the heart of our advocacy — and we know sharing yours takes trust. This page explains exactly what happens to your story from the moment you submit it.
When you share your story, we collect only what you type into the form: your story, the name you choose to be identified by (or “Anonymous”), your condition if you choose to share it, and an email address so we can contact you about your submission. We do not collect anything else, and we never sell or share your information with anyone.
Nothing you submit is published automatically. A member of our team reads every submission before anything appears on the site, and during that review we remove personally identifying information — full names, locations, employer names, provider names, and anything else that could identify you — unless you have told us you want it included.
Real names are opt-in only. If you want your real name on your story, say so in your submission. Otherwise we publish anonymously or under a first name only.
You must check the consent box for us to accept your story, and we keep a record of that consent alongside your submission. We publish only what you agreed to share.
Changed your mind — before or after publication? Use the contact form and tell us you want your story removed. We will take it down within 7 days, remove it from our content system, and confirm by email. You do not need to give a reason.
If we don’t publish your story — because you asked us to wait, or it didn’t fit our editorial guidelines — we delete the submission after 90 days. We don’t keep a backlog of unpublished personal stories.
Submissions are stored in our content management system (a professionally secured, access-controlled service), visible only to the small editorial team, and protected in transit by encryption. Our automated backups are covered by the same deletion process: when we remove your story, it leaves our working systems immediately and ages out of backup copies on their normal rotation.
If anything here is unclear, or you want to know exactly what we have stored about you, ask through the contact form and we’ll answer within 7 days.
Last updated: September 4, 2026. If we change this policy, the changes apply only to new submissions; stories already shared stay governed by the promises made when you submitted.