Verisys CEO John P. Benson Supports Cystic Fibrosis Foundation – Celebrate Every Breath Gala

At the, “Celebrate Every Breath Gala” held on November 13, 2017, the third annual fundraiser for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, J. Knox Singleton, CEO, Inova Health System was named 2017 recipient of the Hitchcock Humanitarian Award. The award is named after Alfred Hitchcock whose great-granddaughter, Melissa died from the effects of cystic fibrosis at 24.

Held at the Ritz Carlton in Washington, D.C., the event hosted more than 350 of the area’s corporate and community leaders who enjoyed culinary presentations from 20+ of D.C.’s best chefs, fine wines, and specialty cocktails authored by a renowned mixologist.

John P. Benson, Verisys CEO is pictured with David Gray, Managing Director of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney.

The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, founded in 1955, states on its website: “The mission of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation is to cure cystic fibrosis and to provide all people with the disease the opportunity to live full, productive lives by funding research and development, promoting individualized treatment and ensuring access to high-quality, specialized care.”

Parents who were determined to save their children’s lives and help them to live with quality for as long as possible started the Foundation and through the sustained support over 60 years, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (Foundation) leads ground-breaking research worldwide on behalf of a cure for the disease.

With diseases that are rare, there is minimal interest from research groups and big pharma to invest in discovering a cure as well as ways finding treatments to help those with the disease to live longer, better lives. It resorts to the efforts of the Foundation to further research. The Foundation has made huge strides and helped discover the gene that causes cystic fibrosis. With that discovery, there is an experimental process, gene editing that will remove the genetic mutation that causes the disease and replace it with a normal sequence of DNA. With success in this research and experiment, there will be a permanent cure for Cystic Fibrosis. The Foundation has also funded the existence of two FDA-approved therapies that treat the basic defect of the disease allowing a longer, more peaceful life.

John P. Benson, CEO of Verisys Corporation says, “The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation has succeeded in bringing awareness to this rare disease to the degree that it, single handedly, has raised funds and managed successfully to produce measurable and unprecedented results from research. It feels they are on the brink of finding a cure for this horrible disease.”

#celebrateeverybreath #curecysticfibrosis #cysticfibrosisfoundation

Written by Susen Sawatzki Healthcare Industry Expert Muse. Writer. Publisher. Producer. Creator of Inspiring Narratives. Connect with Susen on LinkedIn