Two things stand out about the HealthTree Foundation, we strive to fill unmet needs in the myeloma patient community and we always lay our cards on the table for everyone to see and evaluate our work for themselves.

Now that we’ve been at it for ten years and know where we want to go in the next ten, we’re pretty sure you’ll like what you see.  We also hope you’ll want to be a part of it.

Over time, skepticism about our motives have been replaced by respect for our sincere and creative vision and work.

Our growth has been organic; we develop, create and implement programs to meet patient and caregiver needs.  What began with Jenny Ahlstrom picking up the telephone to learn and teach others about clinical trials has become an essential resource of information and support for tens of thousands of patients around the world.

HealthTree Foundation has accomplished a great deal, with more potential than ever.  Just peruse some of the record:

• HealthTree Cure Hub is an unprecedented, revolutionary source of real world data to answer long neglected questions.
• HealthTree Research Initiative (formerly MCRI) introduced most of the patient community to the concept of CAR T therapy.
• We responded to the pandemic by producing Round Table webcasts covering the range of topics in myeloma and then expanded it to create the Myeloma Community Chapter program.
• In the Myeloma Coach program, a number of patients and caregivers who once requested one-on-one mentoring are becoming coaches themselves.
• Whether you were diagnosed today or are a veteran of twenty-plus years and still going strong, or anyone in between, we have essential information about myeloma tailored to any level you might want.

All this is done with the advice and guidance of our Scientific Advisory Board.  They have directed us with opportunities and ideas to educate our community with cutting-edge ideas and proven experience.  But now we think we’re beyond picking up the phone and filling in niches.

There’s a reason we celebrate anniversaries.  They remind us of the past and how to dream realistically.

We want to assist physicians to find the right treatments for each patient and researchers to cure all types of myeloma.  We believe we have the programs and ideas that are in the right place at the right time to reap the rewards before us.  After that, we want to repeat that model as often as possible to do our part to cure many diseases, always moving toward the next disease frontiers.

Based on where we’ve been, we now have a good idea of where we’re going. We have a plan.

But in order to achieve our common goals, to fulfill the unprecedented opportunity before us, to do more than we can dream now, we need you to be an active part of supporting our work.

We’re always going to lay our cards on the table for everyone to see.  We are in this together.  We have no reason not to be as honest with you as we possibly can.

Next week we’ll examine what the next ten years might bring us and how different the world may well be when we look back at our first twenty years.