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Bay Area Lyme
Foundation and Project Lyme Join Forces
to Fight Lyme Disease
at the 2018 Lyme Gala
Event Raises Awareness, an d$1.4
Million for Research Related to Lyme Disease and other
tick-borne illnesses, which can
potentially be disabling, and even life-threatening
New York, NY, November 6, 2018 –
Bay Area Lyme Foundation
and
Project Lyme,two
organizations committed to halting the course of Lyme disease,
came together to highlight the need for collaboration in the
fight against Lyme during the inaugural 2018 Lyme Gala.The
collaboration aims to improve awareness, education and research
of Lyme and other tick-borne infections, which can potentially
be disabling, and even life-threatening. With Bay Area Lyme
Foundation’s expertise in working with scientists and
institutions to implement valuable research, develop impactful
educational programs and create novel initiatives such as the
Lyme Disease Biobank, and Project Lyme’s focus on increasing
awareness and
improving education, these organizations hope to one day make
Lyme and other tick-borne diseases easy to diagnose and simple
to cure.
“Lyme disease is the
most important health crisis of our time,” said 2018 Lyme Gala
honoree, Bill Ford, CEO, General Atlantic. “This disease demands
that we recruit and fund the best medical minds to fund a cure,
and I am hopeful of the effortsof Project Lyme and Bay Area Lyme
Foundation toward this goal.”
Keynote speaker Neil
Spector, MD, an oncologist at Duke University School of Medicine
and author, helped to reinforce the devastating impact of Lyme
disease through sharing his personal story of suffering from
heart failure due to Lyme disease. His experience with Lyme
disease has led Dr. Spector to conduct Lyme disease research
using models originally developed to unravel the mysteries of
cancer.
“Lyme disease is
challenging to diagnose and impossible to cure for many
Americans with currently available therapies, and we need more
research to understand how to best battle tick-borne diseases,”
said Dr. Spector, who received a heart transplant due to
infection of his heart from Lyme bacteria. “Clinicians need to
support one another, researchers need to exchange information
and more organizations like these need to come together to make
this critical research possible.”
Multiple
Bay Area Lyme Foundation research projectsand
Project Lymeawareness and educational initiativeswill be
supported by funds raised at the Lyme Gala.Among the attendees
at this years’ event were renowned researchers and clinicians
who are on the front lines fighting the battle against Lyme
disease on a daily basis, including Richard Horowitz, MD and
Steven Phillips, MD, both of whom have received funding from the
Bay Area Lyme Foundation to research novel therapeutics aimed at
more effectively eliminating stealth tick-borne disease
infections.
Andy Borowitz, creator
of the NBC sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and a
New York Times-bestselling author, was MC for the event, and
had the crowd laughing all night. Heexpressed gratitude to gala
attendees forjoining the fight against Lyme and helping to bring
hope to those who are currently suffering, and helping keep
those who are at risk safe through their support.
Sony singer-songwriter
Dana Parish, who has Lyme, performed for the guests, along with
The Janes Life, whose vocals were heard on America’s Got Talent
and The Voice.
Many of the events’ attendees have Lyme disease, or support a
loved one with the illness, including 2018 Lyme Gala event chair
Jennifer Weis, co-chairs Dee and Tommy Hilfiger, Alisa and Dan
Doctoroff, and Moshe Sukenik, television personalityYolanda
Hadid. Isabel Rose, Laure Woods, Dana Farrington, David Roth and
MarlyGraubard also serve on the committee.
Event sponsors included:Cahill Gordon &Reindel, Cooley Law LLP,
First Republic Bank, General Atlantic Foundation, Jefferies
Financial, Newmarket Knight, Oak Hill Advisors, Sage Foundation,
Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation, Whittier Trust.
About Lyme Disease
One of the most common
infectious diseases in the country, Lyme disease is a
potentially disabling infection caused by bacteria transmitted
through the bite of an infected tick to people and pets. If
caught early, most cases of Lyme disease can be effectively
treated, but it is commonly misdiagnosed due to lack of
awareness and unreliable diagnostic tests. There are about
329,000 new cases of Lyme disease each year, according to
statistics released in 2015 by the CDC. As a result of the
difficulty in diagnosing and treating Lyme disease, as many as
one million Americans may be suffering from the impact of its
debilitating long-term symptoms and complications, according to
Bay Area Lyme Foundation estimates.
About Bay Area Lyme
Foundation
Bay Area Lyme Foundation, a
national organization committed to making Lyme disease easy to
diagnose and simple to cure, is the leading public
not-for-profit sponsor of innovative Lyme disease research in
the US. A 501c3 non-profit organization based in Silicon Valley,
Bay Area Lyme collaborates with world-class scientists and
institutions to accelerate medical breakthroughs for Lyme
disease. It is also dedicated to providing reliable, fact-based
information so that prevention and the importance of early
treatment are common knowledge. A pivotal donation from The
Laurel Foundation covers all overhead costs and allows for 100%
of all donor contributions to Bay Area Lyme Foundation to go
directly to research and prevention programs. For more
information about Lyme disease or to get involved, visit
www.bayarealyme.org or call
us at 650-530-2439.
About Project Lyme
Project Lyme’s mission
is to eradicate the epidemic of tick-borne diseases through
awareness and education, support of cutting-edge science, and
advocacy for solutions to end the suffering. Project Lyme is a
global 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to the
awareness, prevention and early diagnosis of Lyme and other
tick-borne diseases. For more information you can visit
www.projectlyme.org.
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