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29/01/08

Success for Iceland’s "Dollar Per Person" Campaign

Dollar Per Person, a collection for the support of MND research, is now finished.

Iceland sets new standards in MND research contribution. Thursday, January 24th, marks the end of the Dollar Per Person collection, organized by the MND Association in Iceland to raise funds to support research on MND. The goal was to raise the equivalent of one US dollar per inhabitant in Iceland - a goal that has now been reached, with 21 million Icelandic kronur raised to fight the battle with MND.

"I have rarely been as proud to be Icelandic as I am now. We have gone from not contributing at all towards MND research to being the nation that contributes the most per capita" says one of the organizers and president of the MND Association in Iceland, Gudjon Sigurdsson. Mr. Sigurdsson says it is their hope that other countries will follow suit, thus enforcing research on MND and related diseases. Due to the scarcity of MND diagnoses, there has been little research over the past years. 5 people are diagnosed with the disease each year in Iceland, and each year another 5 will die from it. It is the hope of the MND Association that the success of the Dollar Per Person project will boost research in the field and encourage other countries to go into similar fundraising projects.

A special committee was in charge of the collection, which focused mostly on getting support from companies. Atorka is the main supporter of the fund raising effort, along with Actavis, Glitnir bank, Kaupthing bank, Gift Fjárfestingafélag and Sjóvá. Several other companies contributed as well. The MND Association itself also contributed to the effort with individual donations given to the association. In a press conference held at the Culture House in Reykjavík today the Minister of Health, Gudlaugur Thor Thordarsson, gave a speech, and the above-mentioned supporters handed over their donations.

The collection money shall be kept in a fund with grants assigned towards specific research. A board of medical doctors was appointed to decide on which research to support. The doctors on the board are: Grétar Guðmundsson, neurosurgeon at Landspítal University Hospital, Peter Andersen, Associate Professor at Umea University in Sweden og Brian Dickie, head of research with the British MND Association.

"We will begin handing out grants right away, this is a matter of life and death" says Mr. Sigurdsson, who will take over as the President of the International Alliance of ALS/MND Associations in October this year. He says he will emphasize the Icelandic success and encourage other nations to set similar goals.

For more information contact: Guðjón Sigurðsson president of the MND Association. S: (+354) 617 6828www.mnd.is