Past Newsletters

April 2008

Dear Friends and Supporters,

First of all, we appologize for any confusion with the last email  that was sent this morning. There was a problem with the system, so this is the correct message.

Many people have been writing into the foundation inquiring about my medical status  and asking for updates about the Foundation, so I thought I should touch base with you all and fill you in on all the exciting new news.

First of all, please go to your local bookstore or news stand and pick up the current (April) issue of Discover magazine.  They did a fantastic write up on my medical  battles and the foundation.  Here is a link to the story online if you cannot find the magazine, but the magazine has more pictures and is  really well put together. 

Also, here is a link to a video of a live interview I did this last Friday April 11 for some 5000 people at the RSA Security conference in San Francisco.  The band even wrote a custom theme song for me.  Please cue video to 8:35 on the time clock for the beginning of the interview. It was a security conference so the interview was about the identity theft in the hospital, but it was great exposure for cord blood stem cell treatments as well. 

The foundation is making great progress.  We have been actively recruiting new board members to take us to new levels, and really working on our focus on how to save as many lives as possible with the limited resources we have.  We are constantly putting up new info about treatments on the cord blood stem cells page on the website www.drewfoundation.com/cord.htm, and are putting together a patient resource guide which should be up and running in a  few months.  We already have 10 volunteers on this "Trek-for-Treatments" walkathon to take place on October 11 in the San Francisco Bay Area, which will be our second annual event.

Personally, I am still recuperating from 3 major surgeries (left ankle fusion, right hip replacement, and left knee replacement) and spending much of my day in therapy, helping patients, and pursuing the struggle to get thousands of patients to the treatments they need, especially patients that can be treated with cord blood stem cells from the umbilical cord of newborn babies.  Cord blood is now showing amazing results in treating diabetes, cerebral palsy, autism, and over 40 types of blood cancer and bone marrow diseases including leukemias and sickle cell anemia.  The problem is that a vast majority of patients who need these treatments are not getting them.  We have much work to do.

Thank you so much for your continued prayers and support.

Warmest Regards,
Eric Drew