Meet Lisanne from Ohio
Lisanne is a mother of four from Ohio. A year ago, Lisanne was diagnosed with a cavernous malformation in her brainstem. She was told by two local neurosurgeons that her malformation was inoperable due to the location.
Lisanne was devastated by the news. Her condition deteriorated as her brain continued to bleed. So she went online for some emotional support and quickly found an AVM community run by Ben's Friends.
Not only did her new friends from the community offer her emotional support, but they also taught her to be more proactive with her own healthcare and offered recommendations and suggestions. They encouraged Lisanne not to give up her search.
Lisanne eventually was connected to a neurosurgeon in Arizona who specializes in these types of rare malformations. Lisanne and her family traveled from Ohio to Arizona where she underwent a very successful surgery to remove the malformation.
Today, she is fully recovered and thankful to the community members for being her friends and for saving her life.
Lisanne Says Thank You For Running
"I will always be thankful for Ben's Friends. The community eventually saved my life and I know it's going to save more people's lives. I thank you a lot for this race. And maybe someday, I'll run too." --Lisanne from Ohio
Nikki C. Sings Thank You For Your Support
What Is Ben's Friends?
Ben's Friends builds and runs online patient communities for people with rare diseases. Today we operate 30+ dedicated patient communities, serving 40,000 people monthly, and over 500k page views a month.
Rare disease patients and their loved ones come together on our communities to help each other when they need it most.
Over the last year, we’ve almost doubled in size and have become the largest rare disease support network on the internet! Because of our community’s work, people with rare diseases don’t have to be alone anymore.
Why Are We Raising Funds?
We are dependent on donations from friends to keep the patient communities running. We have the most amazing sponsors who give generously to support the mission and our work.
We are a small non-profit with a big heart and a big reach. $2,500 will run all 30+ communities for an entire month. Harvard Business Review recently featured Ben's Friends as a case study for the type of impact an organization can make while on a shoestring budget.
What The Deal With These Perks?
In addition, to helping support Ben's Friends, we've got some fun perks to offer for your sponsor of a runner. Be sure to select a perk on the right side and tell us (rose@bensfriends.org) what runner you're sponsoring.
Runners, Thank You!
Thanks for your generosity and time! The mud run will be a blast! You'll get a T-shirt and some other goodies. We promise to take lots of pictures. Watch the video below to see what a mud run looks like.
![Mud Run]()