The Carroll Petrie Foundation recently announced a $100,000 donation to The Sjögren's Syndrome Foundation to establish The Carroll Petrie Foundation Sjögren’s Awareness Ambassador Program. The two-year initiative will enable the Sjögren’s Syndrome Foundation to recruit volunteers who will help increase awareness of Sjögren’s Syndrome across the United States.
“The Carroll Petrie Foundation is honored to work with The Sjögren’s Syndrome Foundation to raise awareness of an often undiagnosed or incorrectly diagnosed yet treatable disease. This donation will support ongoing efforts to raise awareness and increase education of the syndrome,” stated Jay B. Goldberg, president of The Carroll Petrie Foundation.
The $100,000 donation from The Carroll Petrie Foundation will allow the program to:
- Increase the number of Awareness Ambassadors to over 500 volunteers
- Reach an additional 3,000 healthcare professionals- rheumatologists, dentists and dental hygienists, optometrists, ophthalmologists and primary care physicians
- Create branded materialsIbrochures
The Carroll Petrie Foundation Sjögren’s Awareness Ambassador Program will educate thousands of people about Sjögren’s Syndrome and this funding will change the lives of nearly 4 million Americans.
“This partnership between the SSF and The Carroll Petrie Foundation will help those not yet diagnosed with Sjögren’s receive a proper diagnosis and thus be able to be treated and monitored for the serious complications of Sjögren’s,” said Steven Taylor, CEO of the Sjögren’s Syndrome Foundation.”
Sjögren's Syndrome is a very common but virtually unknown disease, in which, white blood cells attack the moisture-producing glands. Sjögren's is the second most prevalent rheumatoid autoimmune disease, striking as many as four million Americans, 90% of whom are women. Yet it is often undiagnosed or misdiagnosed with the average time from the onset of symptoms to correct diagnosis being 4.7 years.
The Sjögren's Syndrome Foundation is the only national non-profit organization focused on increasing research, education and awareness for Sjögren's. The Foundation was founded in New York, in 1983, by a Sjögren's patient, Elaine K. Harris, to provide support services to patients and their families. Today, the SSF currently spends over $250,000 annually towards research making it the premiere funding organization for Sjögren’s research, oversees more than 65 support groups throughout the United States, manages a national patient conference each year for patients and their families, produces a monthly newsletter and has a leading website for Sjögren's information.
More information about the Sjögren's Syndrome Foundation, please visit http://www.sjogrens.org/ and be sure to follow The Sjögren's Syndrome Foundation on Facebook and Twitter.
