Thanks to PRF’s “Find the Other 150” (now Find the Children) initiative, the global campaign to find all children with Progeria has helped attain an astonishing 85% increase in those identified. Now more children than ever can get the support they need.
PRF has brought awareness to new heights and areas of the world, resulting in an astonishing increase of 46: from 54 to 100 children** in just over three years. Prior to the campaign, the number of new children identified was less than 3 per year!!
**10 of the 90 have non-progerin-producing progeroid laminopathies (Progerias that do not produce Progerin)
In October 2009, PRF launched its “Find the Other 150” (now Find the Children) campaign in partnership with GlobalHealthPR, a worldwide health communications group with offices in the United States, Asia, Western Europe and Latin America. Its goal: search globally for children with the extremely rare disease Progeria, so they can receive the unique the care they need and help advance clinical science for Progeria. Through proactive outreach and a dedicated web site with information in 20 languages, this campaign is succeeding far beyond our expectations!
The total number of known living children with Progeria is now 100 worldwide. The children span five continents, and range in age from 8 months to 20 years.
Stretching across language and geographic barriers, the campaign’s results to date are a true testament to the power of global collaboration.
“At the launch of the campaign, we said that finding even one child would make the campaign a success,” said Audrey Gordon, President and Executive Director, PRF. ” We now know that through our continued global efforts, we can find even more children with Progeria to provide them with unique and essential medical services and care, and significantly further medical research to develop treatments and a cure.”
Let’s keep the momentum going! How can you help make this happen?
♦ Encourage your friends, family, business colleagues and everyone in your address book to visit Find the Other 150 (now Find the Children) , where information about the disease is included in several languages.
♦ Follow updates from PRF through Facebook and Twitter, and encourage others to use these pages to find out more information.
♦ If you have media contacts in China, Eastern Europe and other countries in which global communication is limited, please contact us.
Thank you ALL for helping us find these special children!