Some of you may have seen me announce on social media recently that I have joined the board of a local non-profit organization called Consano. When I first started talking to people about my intention to raise money to fund Oligodendroglioma research, to find new treatments and hopefully a cure– my colleagues and friends in Portland kept mentioning Consano. I must admit, even though I work in the medical field, I had never heard of Consano before these early Oligo conversations took place. Once I started to look at the work they do and the platform they provide to fund medical research– I wish I had known about Consano much earlier!

In brief, Consano is a crowd-funding platform that is unlike anything I have otherwise seen, where funding can be funneled to vetted research on a specific project or topic by any individual who is interested in seeing medical progress occur. Topics are varied, but all are put forth by people who are not satisfied with the status quo, who want to see things improve when it comes to a certain disease or treatment approach. Once a project has been accepted (after being reviewed by Consano’s scientific advisory board), then– through the help of the good ol’ internet– anyone can donate to a project that sparks his or her interest. Donors then get updated on how that project is progressing once a quarter. It’s so cool! And it works– people are making changes with the funding that Consano has made possible. Read more here about how Consano does this, how the research projects are evaluated and other FAQs. You can read more about me and my role here.

Once I learned about Consano, I knew I wanted to get involved. I met a few weeks ago with Molly Lindquist, the founder and CEO of Consano, and I was even more inspired to get moving on these 2 fronts:

– First, I want to raise awareness and money for oligodendroglioma research. That is no secret– and I loved the idea of starting an “honor fund” on Consano as a way to get started.

-Secondly, I know that Oligo is just one example of a rare disease that is not well understood. I know that this model can help me, but it can also help so many other people who have found themselves with a problem that doesn’t have an easy solution.

I am honored to have been asked to join the Consano team– this is a platform that I want to help succeed, grow and flourish so that I, along with other patients, researchers, and interested people can see real progress happen! There is so much inertia that comes with fighting for your life— being able to harness that to “do good” is a real privilege, and I am honored to have the opportunity to help in this way. I hope in so doing, I will help Consano smooth out the path I am on for others who may find themselves here in the future. 

This week I started an “honor fund” on the Consano website to start funding oligodendroglioma research. You can find my page here. I’d love for you to visit it, and consider donating— but aside from my project, the other projects that Consano currently has up are also quite amazing. Click here to see all of the projects are currently being funded. For my medical peeps- keep Consano in mind for projects you have been thinking about but that haven’t been able to become reality yet– you’d be amazed at what can happen!