The first pediatric PH research fund is opening its doors…

In little more than a decade and a half, we have seen incredible growth in the field of pulmonary hypertension.  We have gone from no treatments to nine, to being a disease of little notice in the medical community to one with great and growing educational structures, from hopelessness to hope.

It is now time to bring that same progress to pediatric PH.  Opening the doors for the RobynBarst Pediatric Research and Mentoring Fund is an early and essential step.

Here is an updated version of the note I sent to PHA’s Board and staff about a week ago …

On Saturday evening September 22 at about 7:00pm Pacific, Carl Hicks announced that the Robyn Barst Pediatric PH Research and Mentoring Fund reached its $1,000,000 stage 1 goal.  The doors for the first ever pediatric research fund for PH are now opened!

While the goal was reached at the at the Thirsting for a Cure event in Oregon, it was the culmination of a two year communitywide effort. We owe a great deal of thanks to a great many people…to the Cardiovascular Medical Research and Education Fund (CMREF) for their leadership grant, to Steve White and his family for their generous pledge to get us on our way, to the Linnens, Srinivasans and MacDonalds for their special generosity, to Actelion and United Therapeutics for their high-level sponsiorships for Thirsting for a Cure, to many other donors, to Carl Hicks whose impatience to get us to our goal led to the event that brought us over the top and to Actelion CEO, Shal Jacobovitz who called Carl just before the event and committed to fill any gap to get us to the $1,000,000 target for activation of the Fund.

Most of all, we owe Dr. Robyn Barst for her work in pulmonary hypertension as a clinician, a researcher and builder of the field, especially in the once lonely area of pediatric PH.  Robyn’s generous lead gifts allowed us to establish the Fund and move it from dream to reality in little more than two years.  Her vision in including a mentoring element will help ensure the development of future pediatric PH experts.  Robyn, we are grateful.

Dr. Serpil Erzurum, chair of PHA’s Research Committee recently led a meeting to plan for anticipated implementation of Barst Fund activities.  Based on that meeting, we contacted and rapidly reached agreement with the American Thoracic Society for grant management services. We will now begin to work with them to establish program guidelines based on our existing proposal, set application and review deadlines and make our first grants.

In closing, Saturday’s event was a lot of fun with a lot of wine at the Alexana Winery in Newberg, Oregon.  Mike and Bonnie McGoon, John Hess, Betty Lou Wojciechowski (and family), Mary Jan Hicks, Bruce and  Rita Brundage, Gail and Denis Hayes, Gareth Gwyn and many others joined us, including Charity Sunshine who sang for the gathering.  The Portland Metro Support Group did great work at the registration table and beyond to make the event the success that it was.  Carl got a lot of people driving happily down a long gravel road to get to this event…and more happily back.  Well done. 

The Robyn Barst Pediatric PH Research and Mentoring Fund has gone from dream to reality.  Now it’s time to leverage that reality to growth of the pediatric PH field – for the good of the kids and their families living with this disease…today and tomorrow.