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Thank you from Tony Byrne, CEO DEBRA
In October last year, we launched our ‘A Life Free of Pain’ appeal. This appeal aims to raise £5m by the end of 2023 to develop treatments that will enable people to live free from the pain of EB, accelerate our drug repurposing programme, and enable us to continue to provide EB community support and healthcare. We have been overwhelmed with the support we have received so far, with over £4.6m raised against our target of £5m.
This has been helped immensely by our Vice-President Graeme Souness undertaking the challenge of a lifetime in June, playing his part, and swimming the 21-mile stretch of the English Channel. Graeme swam alongside Andy Grist, father of Isla Grist and the rest of the DEBRA swim team.
Following the fantastic increase in awareness resulting from the swim, we have seen a significant increase in memberships too. It is hugely satisfying to know we can now help more people living with EB and they have access to the support they need. If you or anyone you know has EB, please do let them know we are here to help.
We would also like to thank our Vice-President Frank Warren for his enormous support over the years and for making tonight’s 18th DEBRA Fight Night possible.
Finally, we want to thank everyone for your continued support towards our A Life Free of Pain appeal. We have made good progress, but we still need to raise approximately £400,000 by the end of the year and we look forward to continuing the journey to a life free of pain, for people like Isla, together. We won’t stop until no one suffers from the pain of EB.
Thank you again for your support.
Tony Byrne,
CEO, DEBRA