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Be the person who refuses to look away.
Right now, approximately 2.5 million people worldwide are living with an inherited retinal disease, and 99% of these blinding diseases have no approved treatment. That number isn't permanent. It's a starting point. And you can help change it.
THE STAKES — This Is Not a Waiting Game. It's a Race.
Blinding diseases don't wait for funding cycles, and neither do we. Right now, researchers are running more than 60 active clinical trials — testing gene therapies, stem cell treatments, and interventions that didn't exist a decade ago. Every one of those trials depends on people who believe the science is worth funding before the outcome is guaranteed. That's the harder kind of hope — not the easy kind that comes after a cure is found, but the kind that funds the search itself.
THE SCIENCE — We've Already Proven It's Possible
LUXTURNA® — the first gene therapy approved for an inherited retinal disease — didn't happen by accident. It happened because donors funded the research years before anyone knew it would work. Today, 330+ genes linked to inherited retinal disease have been identified. Each one is a doorway to a potential treatment.
THE COMMUNITY — No One Does This Alone
Behind every statistic is someone like Mike O'Brien (video below), who is living with retinitis pigmentosa — one of the diseases this research is racing to treat. Mike's story isn't rare. It's shared by hundreds of thousands of people diagnosed with these conditions who are watching their vision change and holding onto the same thing you're reading right now: the belief that research can outrun the disease.
This community is built from people affected by these diagnoses, the families who show up for them, the researchers who dedicate careers to this work, and donors who refuse to sit on the sidelines. It only works because everyone shows up. Thank you for your support.