It is David Gardner's tradition to celebrate milestone anniversaries with a philanthropic focus. For their 35th anniversary they will raise money for Ethan Fisher and other children fighting Fanconi anemia. They are partnering with Kidz1stFund, a fund established to raise money and awareness toward the goal of finding a cure for Fanconi anemia.
On Oct. 18 at 7:30pm, there will be a fundraiser in Julia and David Gardner's home, 5009 Augusta Circle. The evening will feature Jimbo Fisher, Ethan Fisher, and Dr. Margaret MacMillan.
Dr. MacMillan is co-director of the University of Minnesota Fanconi Anemia Comprehensive Care Clinic, which follows the largest number of Fanconi anemia patients in the world. Dr. MacMillan is also the Clinical Medical Director of the Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplant Program at the University of Minnesota. She serves on many national committees including the American Society of Blood and Marrow Transplantation. At this event, she will talk more about Faconi anema and their research.
Fanconi anemia is a rare inherited DNA-repair disease that may leads to bone marrow failure, leukemia, or solid tumors. FA can affect all systems of the body and patients will have to have a bone marrow transplant. Many people with FA eventually develop acute myeloid leukemia. FA patients are extremely likely to develop a variety of cancers and at a much earlier age than patients in the general population. The likelihood of a child being born with FA is about 1 in 131,000 in the U.S., with approximately 31 babies born each year.
Kidz1stFund was established by Jimbo Fisher and Candi Fisher to fund the fight against
Fanconi anemia, a rare blood disorder that affects their son, Ethan. When they were told that Ethan had Fanconi anemia, their lives immediately changed. They wanted to know everything they could about the disease, but soon found that there wasn't much information available and that having a rare disease also meant that research funding was rare. That's when they knew they had to do something that would not only help their son, but also help the many others affected by Fanconi anemia. Over the past seven years, Kidz1stFund has raised 7.5 million dollars for research, encouraged people to join the National Bone Marrow Registry so that patients with FA and more than 70 other diseases will be able to find their life saving match and has continues to raise awareness for the disease in the hopes of finding a cure.
Visit www.kidz1stfund.com for more information about this organization.
To purchase tickets, visit www.davidgardnersjewelers.com/kidz-first-fund.
