“Why are you recommending this organization?”

Angela Metzger:  I have been involved in volunteer opportunities. Our family makes it a bi-yearly priority to do a large donation of some sort and throughout the year we serve on many occasions. In the years I have made this a priority; I have never been involved in any way of the ground level pieces of starting a non-profit.

I had the privilege to watch from the outside as one of eBay’s own employees Megan Nuffer involved herself in the upstarting of Rare and Undiagnosed Network (RUN). She did this because her sister was diagnosed with a rare and undiagnosed disease, and because there was little to no relief for her, Megan felt the need to help in some way bigger than what was readily available. Through many conversations, I have learned that there are a lot of people, often children and pre-adults who are suffering with little to no hope of relief. There are children who are stuck in hospitals, hospices for so long, with tests being ran, pain that won’t suffice and diagnoses that don’t happen because the cause can’t be determined. RUN has dedicated their mission to help bring genome sequencing into clinical practice. This will help people better understand their conditions, and help these people live better, longer lives, with less pain and will help their families cope.

To sum up many words that have been deleted multiple times, RUN deserves to receive a grant because not only does this hit close to home within the eBay community, but there is a lot of passion and good that will come of it for many people in need. This is a network of people and patients who don’t have a lot of awareness, but deserve it so that they can bring in the resources and partnerships and research that is needed to find diagnoses and cures and relief for the patients and families involved. I believe that being selected for a grant could be a major milestone and turning point for this new non-profit organization.

*Picture: Megan on the left. Angela on the right.