RARE DISEASE DAY

February 28, 2021

Rare diseases affect less than 200,000 people in the US.  Few people have these "orphan" diseases so it isn't financially viable for companies to develop treatments for their conditions, leaving them with few diagnostic and treatment options. Yet even though these conditions are individually rare, collectively they are surprisingly common with an estimated 7-9% of the population living with a rare condition.

Your "rare" donation provides hope when there are no other options.

Over 25% of EENP’s clients have a rare condition – as do half of the clients waiting to be partnered with an EENP assistance dog! Why? EENP's medical alert dogs are an incredibly flexible tool that supports a wide range of rare conditions.  There is no similar medical device to help manage these conditions – they don't even exist!

Yellow labrador with its front paws in the lap of a woman wearing a red and black plaid jacket and sitting in a wheelchair.

Hannah & Pennie

Pennie came into Hannah’s life in June 2016. Hannah has myasthenia gravis, a rare chronic autoimmune disease characterized by muscle weakness, and Pennie was placed with Hannah to support her with physical tasks like picking up things she has dropped and getting help from someone else when Hannah needs it.

Over the years Hannah’s condition has changed and recently Hannah began taking steroids to help with the muscle weakness. One side effect of the steroids, however, has been unpredictable blood sugar levels – a change to which Pennie quickly adapted. Pennie now alerts Hannah when her blood sugar is moving out of range so Hannah can take care of it!

Assistance dogs are a flexible tool to help clients like Hannah deal with changing conditions.

Yellow labrador with its front paws in the lap of a woman wearing a red and black plaid jacket and sitting in a wheelchair.
Young woman in a grey sweatshirt and teal tights with her arms wrapped around a black lab

Chloe & Chick

Chloe Veeder came to EENP in 2018 for a service dog to help with her non-epileptic seizures that started after she hit her head. Chick changed her life almost immediately and gave her the keys to regain the independence and activity she had lost by both alerting her before she had a seizure and providing deep pressure therapy that helped bring her out of a seizure much more quickly.

A little more than 2 years later, Chloe developed atypical diabetes. That was almost six months ago but doctors are still trying to understand how her diabetes presents. Her diabetes is so unusual that hey even enrolled her in a research study exploring whether there are more than two types of diabetes.

As Chloe steps into the front lines of research into rare conditions, Chick is right there with her. One of his gifts is that his nose doesn’t care if her diabetes is typical or not — he can add blood glucose detection to his list of services whether doctors understand what’s happening or not!

Young woman in a grey sweatshirt and teal tights with her arms wrapped around a black lab
Let's show the huge impact we have together by using our own rare gifts.

Make your own rare gift to help us raise $25,000 by March 16...
and have fun finding your rare number!

  • Donate a number that isn't rounded off like $28.21
  • Donate $228 in honor of Rare Disease Day on 2/28
  • Donate a prime number like $491
  • Donate a number that is meaningful to you!

When you make your rare gift, we'd love to know why it was significant to you!

What does rare mean to you?

Your gift - in any amount - is what makes EENP's assistance dog placements possible. Thank you for your support!

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