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Below are the three special people nominated for the prestigious 2006 HD Hero of the Year award! As you will read, each of these individuals have gone out of their way to dedicate their precious time and efforts to help promote HD awareness both in their community and nationally, so it's going to be a tough choice!
After reading the accomplishment of this year's nominees, everyone is requested to vote for the person you feel best represents the award's criteria by sending an email to Tara Bintliff at tara@....
For anyone who doesn't know about this annual award, please visit the HDSF website, http://get-me.to/hdsfwebsite and go to the index and click on HD Hero Award.
Thank you!
Your 2006 HDSF Committee
Voting Deadline: Friday, April 21st
Nominee Eric Waycott
Eric Waycott devotes many countless hours on his computer on the HD Lighthouse chatroom helping other people living with HD. By being there all the time, he extends the hours the chat room is available especially in the morning for coffee hour, and also in the evening. Eric is particularly good with people dealing with the need for nursing homes, the family break-downs and what it feels like to be abused by the irrational anger of HD. Eric's wife, Teresa has HD and is in a nursing home. They have two kids and Eric is a stay at home father.
Eric Waycott devotes many countless hours on his computer on the HD Lighthouse chatroom helping other people living with HD. By being there all the time, he extends the hours the chat room is available especially in the morning for coffee hour, and also in the evening. Eric is particularly good with people dealing with the need for nursing homes, the family break-downs and what it feels like to be abused by the irrational anger of HD. Eric's wife, Teresa has HD and is in a nursing home. They have two kids and Eric is a stay at home father.
Eric is being nominated for his incredible compassion. He is a truly a terrific, unrecognized, HD Hero.
Nominee: Dave Ulch
David Ulch qualifies for the 2006 Huntington's Hero of The Year Award, because a HERO is what David is!
David is a representative for the Huntington Society of Canada for the Chatham-Kent Area. He is also a member of the Hunt-Dis and HD Lighthouse on line support groups. David Ulch is full time caregiver for his wife Donna who has HD. He has proven to be someone you can call on a minutes notice and he is there to help, no questions asked. If David can't answer a question for you he will point you in the right direction. He has his own website to promote HD and the fundraiser.
An avid sportsman and instructor, David is on the board of Directors of the Kent Cloverleaf Conservation Club which host the Annual Trapshoot for HD. Through his own perseverance and persistence, David started the annual HD Trapshoot in 1996. It is the only trapshoot fund raiser of its kind in Canada for HD. This year will be the 9th Annual Trapshoot for Huntington's Disease. To promote Huntington's Disease awareness and advocacy, David participates in numerous radio and media interviews each year, giving his all in promoting Huntington Disease everyday.
Nominee Dr. LaVonee Goodman
Dr. LaVonee Goodman has been nominated by several people because of her leadership, advocacy and research. She is a passionate advocate for HD patients and innovative researcher who has shown that there are things that can be done to improve the health of HD patients now!
Dr. Goodman has served as president of the Northwest Chapter of the Huntington's Disease Society of America. Along with her husband, Nathan Goodman, she founded the Huntington's Disease Drug Works [http://hddrugworks.org/] to find out if combinations of supplements could help slow progression in HD patients. The HDDW is a non-profit foundation dedicated to identifying and doing clinical trials now on treatments that can be useful for the current generation of HD patients. This is a three year ongoing clinical trial using a combination of nutritional supplements to slow or halt the progression of the disease. An article in Science magazine about their work helped to stimulate discussion of the need for clinical trials that will benefit patients now, innovative trial design, and the importance of including HD family advocates in planning clinical trials. Dr. Goodman HDDW web-site with not only provides HD families information on HD awareness but with potential treatments of HD.
Dr. Goodman joined the HD Lighthouse [www.hdlighthouse.org] editorial staff in 2004 and writes editorials about expediting clinical trials and maximizing their value to the HD patient, reports on research conferences, and explanations of the latest research findings. She also attends HD research meetings as a family advocate as well as a researcher and clinician. She has made presentations to Huntington's Disease families on available supplements and medications at the Guthrie Center, the HOPES conference at Stanford, and many HD support groups around the country.
Dr. Goodman not only single-handedly raised the substantial funds needed to start Huntington's Disease Drug Works, but her
efforts in fund go beyond those for the HDDW. She has made direct gifts to support HD research to the lab at the University of California Irvine. Additionally, she has sponsored research with her own novel ideas that has led to a new area of investigation of HD. Dr. Goodman spends a huge percentage of her time, out of her busy physician's schedule, to directly help HD families by providing guidance through Hunt-Dis, the HD Lighthouse web-site, and has been instrumental in helping HD families personally.Dr. Goodman has shown strong leadership in the HD community to influence HD research organizations to do more transnational research that has the potential to lead to useful clinical treatments for patients. Early on she endured unfair personal criticism from some members of the existing HD research and family support organizations for her efforts that "rocked the boat". Despite this, Dr. Goodman has remained a steadfast advocate for HD families. Over time, other HD organizations have come to accept many of Dr. Goodman's recommendations and this is benefiting the HD community as a whole.
While there are many in the HD community worthy of consideration for the Huntington's Hero of the Year award, we believe that Dr. Goodman's tireless efforts warrant electing her this recognition for 2006.
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