Quote:
Originally Posted by Debi Brooks
I recently presented some information to our patient council about MJFF fundraising that they found shocking. The median gift to the foundation is $50. I don't want to make light of the fact that for many, $50 is a real financial burden, but, that number was much smaller than the council members guessed.
|
Is this 50 $ a year or a month ??? If it is a year, this is a real shocker. We will never find the cure fast if this is all society is willing to give. There must be something wrong with people. I see all people buying new expensive cell phones every 3 months but when it comes to funding they don't want to know anything about it. And then when they or a relative gets the disease they start blaming the big companies.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Debi Brooks
Another surprising factoid....Of those in our database who we know to have PD or a PD connection, about 6% made a donation to MJFF in 2011.
|
Does your foundation have any plans to increase this percentage ? I think most PD patients are not aware of the impact they can have on PD research via funding. I think all neurologists all over the world should make their patients aware of this. Also, maybe several broadcasts on the news could make PD patients aware of this. Another way to achieve it, is to approach people on street and ask if they know someone with PD and explain how important it is PD patients (and their relatives and friends) fund this research.
Yesterday I read an article in a national paper about the recent discovery that links a certain beta amyloid gene to Alzheimer protection. Someone replied to this article that the news was useless because big companies will not make a cure but only think of ways to get most benefit from this. I really get a bit angry when people blame big companies. People always point to others. But they never look at their own responsibility in the whole story. So I asked this guy "How many did you spent in funding cancer, Alzheimer or any other disease ?". He didn't give any reply.
I posted yesterday about the Flurizan clinical trial III for Alzheimer. It costed the company 200 million $ !!! And the results was negative. People tend to forget how big of a risk it is for a company to do such a trial. And when it comes to disease modification of neurodegenerative diseases the odds of your medicine being the cure is very little. Of course companies will not invest agressively in PD or AD. You have also to look at it from their perspective. The risk is very high. A company can go bankrupt if they invest all their resources into something that won't work. We can lower this risk for them by proper funding. That's why funding is so important.