A plea for help to save my sight.

On September 30, Steve, my parents, and I are participating in The Foundation Fighting Blindness' inaugural Visionwalk in Denver.

We're calling our team Usher's Mushers, because (as you probably know if you've been reading here) I suffer from Usher Syndrome. Usher is a particular form of retinitis pigmentosa (RP), characterized by moderate to profound hearing impairment, and progressive vision loss due to RP.

The FFB's mission is to drive the research that will provide preventions, treatments and cures for people affected by RP, macular degeneration, Usher syndrome, and the entire spectrum of retinal degenerative diseases.

For me, personally, the FFB's research gives me great hope that a cure or treatment will be available before I lose my sight completely.  As my vision worsens incrementally year by year, I know only too well how urgent the FFB's mission is for me and thousands of others.

I would very much appreciate your support for our walk.  We have set a team goal of $5,000.00. You can make a tax-deductible pledge online by clicking here.

Any amount you can give  - no matter how small (or large!) - will help the vital work of the FFB. With enough support from our family and friends, we may even win the "flying pig award," which will be given to the teams in the Family, Corporate, and Individual categories that raise the most money for this event. The award is so named because FFB will not wait until pigs fly to find a cure for blindness!

If you're local and would like to walk with us, we'd love to have you join our team! Please let me know if you'd like to become a fellow Musher; the sign-up information is provided on the website linked above. Thank you very, very much for your support!

UPDATE: As of the end of August, we've raised over $3300.00, including quite a bit of support from blog readers! We are leading the race for the flying pig award, and, more importantly, are raising a lot of sight-saving research dollars. Many, many thanks to all of you who have contributed so far.