New England Chapter Makes Major Research Commitment for 2006

The New England Chapter has announced it will triple its research pledge for 2006—to a total of $150,000. The announcement was made at the chapter’s annual Patient Education Seminar held Saturday, June 3 at the Peabody, Mass. Marriott.

The donation will be given to the national Scleroderma Foundation’s research program, which funds at least $1 million of research into this potentially fatal disease each year.

“We’d heard they were thinking of increasing their research pledge this year, and we thought it would be great if they doubled it,” said Frannie Waldron, acting executive director of the national Scleroderma Foundation. “But then they surprised us by tripling it. This is a real encouragement because research is the basis for hope for people who have scleroderma.”

Marie Coyle, president of the New England Chapter, said there are many reasons they decided to make this major donation. One reason is that they believe the national peer review system the Foundation uses is funding substantial research. Another is that most of the top medical schools and hospitals in the United States are actively involved in scleroderma research.

“The Foundation’s research program has high standards of excellence, leading us to believe that monetary donations to the national program have a much greater likelihood for increasing understanding of the disease and finding an eventual cure,” Coyle said.

This is the second major piece of good research news the Foundation has received in the last month. In May a donor in the Chicago area also made a six-figure donation that is restricted for use in funding research.

“Our research news has been very good of late,” Waldron said. “As we move further into Scleroderma Awareness Month and some of our other major national and chapter level events we also expect the good news to continue in the other areas of our mission—support and education.”