Results of Lundbeck's Donation of $10,000 to NORD for Raise Your Hand!

 Rare Disease Day Partner

Thank you for Raising Your Hand to Fight Rare Diseases!

In the weeks before Rare Disease Day 2011, many of you circulated the Raise Your Hand to Fight Rare Diseases icon to your members and friends. Lundbeck Inc. had made a commitment to donate $1 for each click on the icon, up to $10,000, to NORD's General Research Fund. That fund supports research on rare diseases for which there are few other sources of funding.

Thanks to your amazing support, there were more than 11,000 clicks on the Raise Your Hand icon! As a result, Lundbeck has made an unrestricted donation of $10,000 to NORD's General Research Fund.

NORD's Research Committee decided to allocate the donation to an existing restricted research fund for diffuse scleroderma, also known as systemic sclerosis. That fund was established several years ago by patients and their families. It has received a steady stream of small donations over the years, but was still several thousand dollars short of the amount required ($33,500) to fund a grant.

The Lundbeck donation has made it possible to fund a grant this year. Recently, NORD posted its Requests for Proposals for 2011.

NORD has received many emails over the years from patients who have this very disabling rare disease. One patient recently wrote: "Please work hard on behalf of all of us who are trying so hard to maintain a quality of life."

Your clicks to "Raise Your Hand" will give new hope to these patients and their families. Thank you for supporting this important campaign on behalf of rare disease research! 

(This was the icon shared by many with friends and family in the weeks before Rare Disease Day 2011.)

THANK YOU TO ALL MY FRIENDS & FAMILY WHO CLICKED ON THE LINK!