Coping with a rare condition stretches our resiliency and, with a little help from friends, triumph through adversity.
The story of Ben's Friends founder Ben Munoz proves just that. Recovering from a stroke brought about by a cerebral arterioveous malfomation in 2006, Ben started a rare disease community to connect with others and before you know it, that network has grown to 34 communities serving close to 30,000 patients worldwide.
This story is captured in a BCM Momentum article entitled Coping Through Connection: Rare Disease Support Communities. BCM Momentum is Baylor College of Medicine's official online publication. Here is an excerpt:
"Munoz says their goal is to continue creating more communities and filling these needs. He says their mission is to serve as a source of support for rare disease patients, both in the United States and around the world.
"Personally, he says he’s in medical school because he wants to treat or interact with stroke patients. “I feel a need to serve that population,” he says.
"Munoz says that participating in communities on Ben’s Friends has helped him cope with his struggles. He says that professionals can provide helpful advice and empathy, “But patients who are in the same situation as you can give sympathy.”"
Read more of that story as told by Jordan Magaziner. you might want to throw in a comment on the page too.