Our Good News Holiday Campaign is the culmination of our year of “Time to Tell the Stories 2022.” In this series, we celebrate the connections, the celebrations, the events and milestones that we’ve been privileged to be a part of this year. Our 20th anniversary year is winding down and we are wrapping it up by spreading good news & gratitude throughout the season. Your financial donations and selfless volunteerism are what enable us to continue providing vital services to our GIST community.
An Appeal from Our Executive Director
Dear Friends,
When 2022 kicked off, little did we know that a war between Ukraine and Russia would begin. How does this relate to The Life Raft Group? Why am I mentioning this to you? Many GIST patients contact us from around the world. We do not turn anyone away.
Lidia, who lives in Ukraine, contacted us in January, desperate for help after failing multiple therapies. We sprang into action to get her proper diagnostic testing and connected her with a medical expert that recommended an off-label therapy that could work on her rare GIST mutation. A month later war broke out and rockets were flying over her home with bombs exploding nearby. Again, we acted immediately to see how we could help her. She was losing hope, but we stayed connected, supporting her emotionally and giving her options for access to treatment during this trying time.
You may not know this part of what we do at the LRG, but we help patients daily with support and empowerment. We pair patients like Lidia with mentors who can support them through their disease journey. Over 200 patients in our global LRG community are currently paired with trained LRG GIST mentors – patients & caregivers who have walked the road these patients are currently facing.
Stories like this personally touch my heart and strengthen my determination to continue to impact our GIST community with services and support like this. I need your help to keep making this impact on patients around the world.
The LRG also provides life-saving programs such as our Virtual Tumor Boards and a physician surveillance group to allow key opinion leaders to train local doctors on GIST management and treatment. We service thousands of patients each year by bridging important relationships among the medical community.
Can I count on you to make a gift so that we can continue to help patients like Lidia survive and thrive after their diagnoses? Please make a gift to The Life Raft Group today so that more patients can build a path to survival with the tools that the LRG provides over the course of their journey.
Our focus is always on supporting our patients – war or no war. Together, we stand strong in a war against cancer and we won’t stop until this battle is won. Until then we will keep supporting each patient & caregiver in their journey.
From the heart of The Life Raft Group, we thank you so much for your continued generosity!
With gratitude,
– Sara Rothschild, Executive Director
