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Penn Offense: Touchdowns to Fight Castleman Disease

Proceeds benefit Uplifting Athletes, Inc.

Completed

Based on 33 touchdowns, each worth $186.99

Ended
15 pledgers

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Help the Penn offense raise research funds to fight Castleman disease!

As part of Uplifting Athletes, the University of Pennsylvania Football team and Dr. David Fajgenbaum are coming together to take down Castleman disease, a disease as rare as ALS, whose most common subtype is as deadly as cancer, and very poorly understood by the medical community. But we’re fighting to change that!

Help us battle this rare disease by making a flat donation or pledging any dollar amount towards every touchdown our offense scores. During our 2015 Ivy League schedule, each TD will support Castleman disease research! Please check our scoreboard to see how much money we raise as team: https://pledgeit.org/team/pennfootball


In 2005, Dr. David Fajgenbaum was the staple of health. A senior quarterback under then Georgetown head coach Bob Benson, who is now Penn’s defensive coordinator, he was impressive both on and off the field, eventually earning himself Academic All-American Honors that year. He went on to study Public Health for two years at Oxford, before coming to Penn to study medicine. Out of the blue in his second year of med school, Dr. Fajgenbaum became severely ill with what he would learn to be idiopathic multicentric Castleman’s Disease (iMCD). That year, he spent five months hospitalized and had his last rites read, only narrowly escaping death. He has had life threatening relapses every 15 to 17 months since then, where his immune system attacks and shuts down multiple vital organ systems, which requires him to undergo combination chemotherapy. Now, Dr. Fajgenbaum is fighting iMCD on all fronts—as a physician, researcher, entrepreneur, and patient. As a Research Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology/Oncology at the University of Pennsylvania, his research has completely flipped the way that doctors research and think about iMCD.

Between relapses, Dr. Fajgenbaum also co-founded the Castleman Disease Collaborative Network (CDCN) in 2012 to accelerate research and treatment discovery for Castleman disease. The CDCN takes an innovative approach to overcome hurdles in biomedical research faced by iMCD and other rare diseases. They facilitate global collaboration among their network of 300+ physicians and researchers, attempting to drive strategic investments into high-impact research projects that are prioritized by its global network. The CDCN also attempts to forge partnerships across industry, academia, and advocacy, which is where Penn Football fits into the picture. The CDCN has in place an International Research Agenda, anchored by a 28-member Scientific Advisory Board of nuanced experts, which it is currently executing at institutions worldwide.

The infrastructure is set. All the CDCN needs now to bring this disease down is funding, which is where Dr. Fajgenbaum and Penn Football need your help. We hope you will choose to support the fight to end Castleman’s and the dominant Ivy League season Penn has in store by pledging to donate to the CDCN for every touchdown our offense scores.

Thank you for your support!

Schedule

DateNametouchdownsEarned
10/3Penn vs. Dartmouth3$561
10/17Penn at Columbia6$1,122
10/23Penn vs. Yale5$935
10/31Penn at Brown6$1,122
11/7Penn vs. Princeton3$561
11/14Penn at Harvard5$935
11/21Penn vs. Cornell5$935
Uplifting Athletes, Inc.

This campaign benefits

Uplifting Athletes, Inc.

Verified Charity

Uplifting Athletes is a nonprofit organization that harnesses the power of sport to build a community that invests in the lives of people impacted by rare diseases.

Contributions made to this campaign are tax-deductible.

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