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The first ever AERD Awareness Day was September 26th, 2018. The Samter’s Society organized two fundraisers for AERD research – a t-shirt sale on Bonfire and a Go Fund Me campaign. We were able to raise a total of $9,308.88 for AERD research, which is a huge accomplishment for the first ever AERD fundraising events! Proceeds were donated to Scripps Clinic, The Brigham & Women’s AERD Center, and the Penn Medicine AERD Center – with a donation of $3,102.96 to each clinic.
The doctors who research AERD are enthusiastic about the patient community getting organized. All of them expressed their heartfelt thanks for these donations:
"Please pass on to the Samter's Society how grateful I am for this. It isn’t just the money, it is the support from the patient community that means a lot. And I love it that the online presence is growing and strengthening. It gives us a GREAT advantage going forward as we leverage what we can do for patients." - Dr. Andrew White, Scripps Clinic
"I can’t tell you how much our research team appreciates the Samter’s Society donation to the BWH AERD Center. I will share this good news with everyone here, and we will earmark that financial gift for a particular need so that we can then update you to let you know in a real tangible way about what a difference your advocacy work has made for the research in this field." - Dr. Tanya Laidlaw, Brigham & Women's AERD Center
"On behalf of the Penn AERD Center, I would like to extend my deep gratitude for the generous donation you have made to the Penn AERD research fund. I assure you that these funds will be used towards a special project related to AERD. The Samter’s Society is doing great work at increasing awareness and educating patients with the latest knowledge on AERD therapy. I know that I speak for Dr. Adappa as well when I say that this gift is truly appreciated as are all of your efforts and that of your team." - Dr. John V. Bosso, Penn Medicine AERD Center
If you missed AERD Awareness Day 2018, here is a summary of some of our activities:
Dr. John V. Bosso & Dr. Nithin Adappa of the Penn Medicine AERD Center did a, AERD Patient Q & A video for our support group on Facebook.
We did a live radio interview about AERD on Sirius XM’s Pulmonology Show featuring Dr. Tanya Laidlaw of the Brigham & Women's AERD Center. One of our Canadian members (Kelly Beaton) did a CBC interview with an accompanying print story.
We assisted Allergy & Asthma Network with the development of a new AERD Toolkit on their website, which was launched on the awareness day! The toolkit includes a printable AERD Fact Sheet and a brief Guide for Physicians written by Dr. Tanya Laidlaw and Dr. Andrew White.
In addition to this, many AERD patients used this opportunity to tell the world about their AERD story on social media and blogs. You can read a couple of these stories here:
Working together, we can make a difference for those affected by AERD. Stay tuned for AERD Awareness Day 2019 - and save the date for September 26th!
