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Whitney Dafoe's 38th Birthday Fundraiser for Ronald W. Davis's research

Whit

Senior Member
Messages
399
Location
Bay Area
It’s my birthday!

me-cfs_38th_birthday.jpg


For my 38th birthday on October 3rd I would like to ask for donations to Ron’s research. Here is a link to a Spotfund fundraiser where 100% of donations will go to OMF and they will give all of the funds to Ron’s lab. Please celebrate with me by coming together and giving the gift of hope.

You can donate here:

http://spot.fund/FindaCureForMEcfs

Last year for my birthday we raised 37,000$ for ME/CFS research at my father’s lab. He used these funds to purchase a new High Pressure Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) Instrument.

me-cfs_38th_birthday_2.jpg


From Ron:
"I and everybody in the lab are really excited and grateful to get this new instrument because it allows us to do a large number of new experiments. This instrument replaces an old one that was broken and not reparable. This one is much better than the old one because it can separate and quantitate a large number of the molecules that we are very interested in. We are using it in new experimentation involving the tryptophan to kynurenine metabolic trap. It has really helped us in developing the proper protocols for the experimentation. We are also using it to prepare different versions of Copaxone that we have synthesized. And it is being developed to investigate part of the nitrogen cycle that appears to be altered in ME/CFS patients. Because we were also able to buy a fraction collector connected to the HPLC Instrument, we will also be able to investigate what's in the serum that affects the nanoneedle assay. Thank you so much for your generous donations."

me-cfs_38th_birthday_3.jpg


This year for my 38th birthday, I would like donations to Ron’s lab so he can buy a new, better microscope that he needs to further his research.

From Ron:
"We need a high resolution fluorescent microscope that will allow us to get good visualizations of human immune cells for a large variety of our experiments. We have new experimentation on neutrophils, which is being delayed at the moment because we can't get good images of the cells. We would also like to get good images of all the cells that we prepare from patients' blood, which is currently limited by the quality of our old microscope. All the researchers are really excited about the possibility of getting a better microscope. The best version of this microscope costs about $150,000, but with less money we could leave off some of the useful options and still get something that is better than what we currently have."

I would like to propose that we donate to help them pay for the best version of this microscope that they really want and need. We may not be able to pay for the whole thing, but we could make it possible for them to get the version that would help them the most. If we do, a plaque will be placed on this instrument in our honor as well.

I believe Ron is our best chance at finding a cure for ME/CFS. Ron has an ever growing number of experiments and ideas and though COVID has caused delays, they are making steady progress. He believes he will figure out the cause of ME/CFS. Yesterday he had dinner with Rob Phair, who works with Ron at Stanford. He is a pragmatic minded person, not a blind optimist. Janet asked him if he thought they would ever figure out ME/CFS and he said "you know what, I really think we are going to crack this".

Please donate whatever you can to my birthday fundraiser to help make this happen. Give me the gift of getting closer to ending ME/CFS.

http://spot.fund/FindaCureForMEcfs

Thank you everyone for your constant support and generosity. Please share this everywhere you can and spread the word! Let's beat last year's fundraiser! Here are some links you can share. Thank you!

My Facebook post

My Instagram post

My blog post on my website

Love,
Whitney
 
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lenora

Senior Member
Messages
4,913
Hi Whitney....I made a donation for your birthday. Unfortunately I didn't see your info and I made it through Spotify. I tried to contact the co., but of course no luck.

I would like this to go directly to your father. Any chance of you being able to pull the proper strings? I hate to lay this at your feet....and perhaps arrangements were already made. Still, I'm concerned. Thanks. Lenora.
 

Whit

Senior Member
Messages
399
Location
Bay Area
Hi Lenora,
I have no idea how a Spotify (did you mean to write Spotify or Spotfund?) donation works unfortunately. If you make a donation to my fundraiser on Spotfund, the funds all go to Ronald W. Davis's lab. I will leave this fundraiser up for the next year until my next Birthday because it is an easy way for people to donate to Ron's lab specifically and it's a nice intro to ME/CFS that people can send others a link to with an easy way to donate.

If you donate to OMF in any other way, you can also specify with a note in your donation that the funds go to Ron Davis. OMF will honor that.

you can also donate directly to the ME/CFS Research Center at Stanford here
https://give.stanford.edu/med/fund/?kwoDCFilter=KDC-45FDCS8&kwoDCPreselect=KDC-45FDCS8

thank you for your support!

love,
Whitney
 

lenora

Senior Member
Messages
4,913
Namaste @ Whitney.....I'm impressed with your quick reply (and you and your family generally).

I have donated to OMF in the past with the request that the money go to your father's care. I have no doubt that happened. However in the latest b'day greeting I was sent to Spotify (I think that was the name), and I just want to make certain the funds reach the correct lab.

I should have gone back to your home page to begin with....the info was there, but you know how computers are!
If not, try to lodge a basic complaint these days.....not easy.

I know you're a busy man Whitney, so won't keep you, but I admire the way you're able to adhere to your Buddhist beliefs. I have to say that while I can't accept anything whole these days (am I on the agnostic road?), but believe something holds us together and that prayer is a wonderful thing for anyone (and it can't hurt the world, either....it needs it also). If anything helped me through this entirely it was the AA beliefs (I'm not nor ever have been alcoholic...just good steps to live by) and above all, Buddhism. Better days ahead for a wonderful addition to our world.

Have you read Howard's blog lately? If possible, or when possible, I think you'd find his situation interesting. I gather your feeling somewhat better; I hope so anyway. Thanks & give your parents & sister a hug for the wonderful jobs they're all doing. Yours, Lenora.
 

Whit

Senior Member
Messages
399
Location
Bay Area
However in the latest b'day greeting I was sent to Spotify (I think that was the name), and I just want to make certain the funds reach the correct lab.

Ok now I'm certain you're writing Spotify instead of Spotfund. Spotify is a music streaming service, Spotfund is a fundraising platform. If you clicked the link to Spotfund on this thread or any of my pages, you went to Spotfund, and 100% of your donation went to Ron Davis's lab. So not to worry. :)
 

Mouse girl

Senior Member
Messages
578
i must confess when i first read this with my impaired brain, i thought: "Oh wow, Willem Dafoe knows someone with ME/CFS and is helping out, how cool!" lol Not that you doing it is any less exciting, just always hoping for more celebrity action to bring more public awareness. Not that many people outside of film buffs might know of Willem Dafoe these days. :)
 

junkcrap50

Senior Member
Messages
1,330
I still don't understand why Davis can't use and rent time on a fluorescent microscopes (or a high sensitive mass spectrometer for another project) that already exist at Stanford. Researchers rent others' equipment all the time (even across country). Stanford has a microscopy facility specifically for anyone to rent and use, even unaffiliated with Stanford, non-academics like any of us: https://microscopy.stanford.edu/ They can quote prices and have a online reservation system. The whole point is to prevent the need from spending the money to buy all the equipment yourself.

Sure, at some point, buying makes more sense than renting, if there is high continual demand. But I can't imagine a significant amount of ME/CFS research can't be done before that point with our limited funding - even if it is preliminary investigations.
 

Neunistiva

Senior Member
Messages
442
I still don't understand why Davis can't use and rent time on a fluorescent microscopes

I don't understand how you know they're not already doing that.

And if it were a good solution why do you think among a group of highly intelligent experts none have thought of that but you did?

I know our faith in the system has been shattered but seriously this is going too far. We are talking about severely ill Whitney Dafoe and his family who we have watched sacrifice everything to fix ME/CFS every day for years.
 

junkcrap50

Senior Member
Messages
1,330
I don't understand how you know they're not already doing that.
Because nearly every fundraising request for equipment says that research is stopped / held up / can't proceed / on hold / delayed because they need to purchase new equipment they don't have.

And if it were a good solution why do you think among a group of highly intelligent experts none have thought of that but you did?
Of course they've thought of it! It would be nice to have an explanation why, when asking for our money, an obvious, less expensive option can't/isn't be used. I just can't believe that buying is less expensive than renting time.

Anyway, I have no more comments as other threads on topics such as this have gone astray.
 

Neunistiva

Senior Member
Messages
442
It would be nice to have an explanation why, when asking for our money, an obvious, less expensive option can't/isn't be used.

Ooooooor, when ME/CFS researchers who (unlike people who research other diseases and have the luxury to focus only on their job) have to juggle research with fighting for recognition, fighting prejudices, dealing with grant proposals getting rejected for ridiculous reasons, their careers being threatened, signing open letters, advocating for patients, and in many cases being carers for their sick family members, say they need a microscope we believe them that they NEED a fraking microscope instead of demanding they waste their already precious time and energy giving us detailed descriptions of their every day-to-day work organization.

It's a lab. They need a microscope. They're not asking for a trampoline and a nerf gun.
 
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