I agree with you, Karen.

Glenn's point, I believe, is that we need high profile celebrities to speak up to promote funding, research, and treatment, and to raise the training and awareness of physicians. Things are much better now than when my PN started but there is plenty of room for improvement.

Make no mistake about it, politics is the key to publicly funded research. There isn't enough ensured profit to motivate the drug companies to invest in PN and nerve research. Congressional "earmarks", meaning pork, has cost us dearly in pain, suffering, and a feeling of hopelessness. The billions wasted the past few years should have been better spent on medical treatment, training, and research. The key to political will is public awareness and desire, and one key to that is having spokespeople like Michael J. Fox, Chris Reeves, and Jerry Lewis (for muscular dystrophy).

Given the six degrees or less of separation we all have from any celebrity, with a few phone calls could probably recruit a celebrity who is willing to commit and work on PN as their pet project. We had a senator, former Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) who "maintained his active pace throughout the onset of peripheral neuropathy, an affliction of the nervous system that left him without feeling in the soles of his feet." ( http://www.hillnews.com/thehill/expo...ng/101905.html ). Unfortunately, he did nothing for us. If there are any other congress people or senators with PN, any of the more articulate among us could contact them and lobby for them to take up funding PN research, treatment, and physician training as their crusade.

Thank you, Glenn, for starting this important thread.