Our Story

Why do we do this?

In 2019 Our founder and board president was diagnosed with a rare, life-threatening genetic condition called Vascular Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (VEDS).   VEDS is the most serious form of Ehlers Danlos.  VEDS impacts the ability for the body to make the correct collagen responsible for making up your arteries and hollow organs. Because of this, people with VEDS often have a shortened life span due to complications like spontaneous artery and organ ruptures.  There is an 80% that someone with VEDS will have a life-threating event by the time they are 40 years old.  VEDS is a Rare Disease meaning less than 200,000 people are diagnosed in the United States.  As of 2020, there are approximately only 2,000 people with VEDS in the United States.  To put that in perspective, if you were to take everyone with VEDS and put them in the Daytona International Speedway, you would only take up 2% of the seats.  After seeing the anxiety that his family has gone through and after receiving the results that he passed down the gene to his son, he made it a goal to spread awareness, educate medical professionals, and fundraise for future research, and to help families impacted by rare diseases.