3.5 million people in the UK live with a rare disease, yet most face isolation and some may never meet another person facing the same challenges. GPs and other medical professionals are largely unfamiliar with rare conditions, meaning 30% of rare disease patients have
received three or more misdiagnoses, and patients often have to become the expert in their own disease.

Patient groups can be a good source of support, but only half of rare diseases have a national organisation to which patients can turn, and those that do exist are tend to be set up by patients themselves or their families rather than medical professionals.
Simultaneously, patients and their families have little hope for a treatment: of the 7,000 recognised rare diseases, only 400 have licensed treatments.

Findacure, a rare diseases charity, provide expert training and advice to help individuals start and grow their own patient groups. In 2015 alone they worked with over 100 patient group leaders, who are now better equipped to support hundreds-of-thousands of patients
across the UK and Europe. Some of these groups have now started their own treatment research and clinical trials!

Findacure are also developing their own drug repurposing research projects – which involves testing generic drugs for more specific rare diseases. This brings treatments to rare disease patients faster and cheaper than traditional R&D processes.

On the 25th of June, I will be skydiving for Findacure. I would be very grateful if you could sponsor me and donate to this valuable cause. Every pound you give will go to Findacure's patient empowerment and drug repurposing programmes. Thank you for your support.