As with any disease, research is critical to finding a cure for FOP. Because only a few hundred people in the world have FOP, private donations are especially important in funding research. With your donation, you will not only be helping Hayden – whose hope is that soon, researchers will discover a way to stop, retard, or surgically remove the extra bone growth – but you’ll also be helping people with more common bone-related conditions, such as osteoporosis (estimated 44 million in the US alone), arthritis (over 70 million), post-amputation treatment, certain spinal cord injuries and some heart valve disorders. This is because research into finding a cure for FOP has lead to important discoveries about other bone related diseases. You can download the 15th Annual FOP research report here (4MB pdf file, Adobe Acrobat required).

Update: A warm thank you to all our contributors so far. Check out the growing list here!

Donation Ideas

$ 56 Number of days a typical "flare-up" lasts
$ 200 Approximate number of known cases of FOP in the United States
$ 400 Approximate number of known cases of FOP worldwide
$ 499 Cost of a Newcon Professional Binocular Microscope
$ 848 Age, in days, when Hayden was diagnosed with FOP
$ 1050 List price of the "Breezy 600" Lightweight Wheelchair
$ 2500 Estimated number of cases worldwide that have yet to be diagnosed as FOP (as with all orphan diseases, correct diagnosis can be elusive because so few doctors are aware of the disease.)
$ 5400 Approximate cost of an in-school, non-government subsidized person to
watch Hayden and make sure he’s not knocked over in the school
playground!
$ Millions Number of people with diseases that are helped by FOP research! Be the
first to donate a million!

All donations for Hayden’s Hope will go to the International FOP Assocation, or IFOPA. IFOPA has two main goals: 1. funding ongoing research for FOP, and 2. funding special needs for those with FOP toward the goal of LIFE, or Living Independently with Full Equality. IFOPA has extremely low overhead, so virtually all your donations will go toward these two goals.

Click here to donate to IFOPA. Please make sure to put "Hayden’s Hope" in the Payment For line of Network for Good, so IFOPA knows where your donation comes from! If you would like to use PayPal, you must donate directly from IFOPA's site here. Look for the PayPal donation logo and don't forget to put our name in the 'for' column.

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