CONNECT2FIGHT for HOPE and a CURE
At the Children’s Tumor Foundation (CTF), we’re dedicated to bettering the lives of the over 2.5 million people living with neurofibromatosis (NF), a genetic disorder that causes tumors to grow on nerves throughout the body. We want to end NF as fast as we can by connecting the unconnected and to do that we are:
CONNECTING communities for support, awareness, and hope
CONNECTING patients to quality healthcare, clinical trials, and research partners.
CONNECTING researchers together for collaboration.
CONNECTING funds to the mission: driving research, expanding knowledge, and advancing care for the NF community
We need you to CONNECT2FIGHT during February, which is Rare Disease Month, because living with tumors is not all fun and games and the more money and awareness we raise, the faster we will be able to End NF!
Why partner with the Children’s Tumor Foundation?
Not only are we connectors for NF patients, communities, clinicians, and researchers, but we are a top-rated charity based on our financial responsibility. We dedicate 84% of our funds directly to our mission and have a track record of complete transparency.
Furthermore, with no cure and very limited options for treatment, our patients and their families deserve to have hope for what tomorrow will bring. By joining CTF in our fight to End NF, you can be their source of hope.
There are three types of neurofibromatosis: NF1, affecting 1 in 3,000, NF2, afflicting 1 in 25,000, and schwannomatosis, which is the most rare type and is found in 1 in 40,000.
To help you understand the gravity of that, it means that every single day more than 120 people are born with one of the 3 types of NF.
Because NF affects the central and peripheral nervous systems, tumors can grow anywhere on or in a patient’s body and cause a wide range of problems. To name a few, NF can lead to blindness, bone abnormalities, deafness, disfigurement, learning disabilities, disabling pain and cancer.
Furthermore, NF affects all populations regardless of ethnicity or gender. Any family can be affected since roughly half of all cases arise in families with no family history of the disorder.
There is no cure yet, but progress toward ending NF is being made every day. Because of Children’s Tumor Foundation funding, there are 68 active clinical trials in existence right now, and 66 comprehensive NF Clinics nationwide, plus 20 clinics in Europe.
2020 was a big year for research advances in NF. For one, we celebrated the first ever FDA-approved treatment for NF1 patients! NF2 patients started enrolling in the ground-breaking launch of a platform clinical trial and the first clinical trial dedicated to schwannomatosis was started, which is focusing exclusively on the issue of pain.
Not only that, but NF research is shedding new light on several forms of cancer, brain tumors, bone abnormalities and learning disabilities, ultimately benefiting the broader community in addition to those with NF. This progress is promising but we have so much more to do. And that’s why we need your help!
How Can You Connect2Fight?
In 2020, Connect2Fight partnered with 23 content creators who raised over $26,000 for NF research by hosting charity livestreams. Connect2Fight is going into its second year with big plans for continued impact. We are bringing the creator community together with NF Heroes in a February Rare Disease Month campaign. This collaboration will raise awareness and funds for NF research, through the power of livestream fundraising!
Join our Rare Disease Month campaign by starting your own livestream event or by joining one of our CTF Plays Among Us events with NF Heroes (patients), CTF staff, and other content creators. If you’d like to join a scheduled event click here. To start your own Among US event, join the campaign here OR you can host your own charity livestream whenever it’s convenient for you on StreamlabsCharity.com.
We’re also excited to announce that we’ve partnered with Streamlabs to bring you some amazing overlay and alerts for use in your fundraising event as well.
You can download them from the Streamlabs design library, and install them with one click:
- Install the stream overlays
- Install the charity donation alerts & the charity donation goal
However you decide to Connect2Fight, every dollar raised will give NF patients and families hope for a future that includes a cure for NF.
You can contact the Connect2Fight team at livestream@ctf.org or visit our website at: www.ctf.org/connect2fight
