NF Research Needs Your Voice! The NF Research Federal Funding needs YOUR Voice! We need everyone to contact their members of Congress NOW and encourage them to include $12.8 million for NF research in the final version of the FY12 Defense Appropriations bill. This includes your Representative and your two Senators. READ MORE Please use the draft letter below in contacting your members of Congress and add your personal story to this letter as well. Copy (CTRL C) the letter below then find one of your Senators at senate.gov . Find the spot to email them and paste (CTRL V) the letter. Be sure to add your name and address after the “sincerely”. After sending the letter go back and do the same with your other Senator. Now do the same with your representative by finding them at www.house.gov/writerep. Feel free to personalize the letter if you are comfortable doing so. If you have problems, you may also print the letter and fax it to them. Regular mail takes far too long due to all of the security measures. If you can, please leave a comment letting us know that you sent a letter, what state your from and who your Congressman is. Thanks! Copy Text Below The Honorable ___________________ ___________________Senate/House Office Building Washington, DC 20510/20515 Dear Senator/Congressman ____________________: As someone closely touched by Neurofibromatosis (NF), I write to request that you include the House passed level of $12.8 million for the Army’s Neurofibromatosis Research Program (NFRP) in the final version of the Fiscal Year 2012 Department of Defense Appropriations bill. NF involves the uncontrolled growth of tumors along the nervous system, which can result in terrible disfigurement, deformity, deafness, blindness, brain tumors, cancer and death. NF is the most common neurological disorder caused by a single gene and is more common than muscular dystrophy and cystic fibrosis combined. In addition, Neurofibromatosis research addresses areas of great clinical need directly affecting the health of our soldiers. NF is a complicated condition closely connected to many common diseases and disorders that can lead to unmanageable pain, learning disabilities, cancer, orthopedic abnormalities, deafness, blindness, memory loss, and amputation. NF also involves inflammation similar to that involved in wound healing. Recognizing NF’s importance to both the military and to the general population, Congress has given the NFRP strong bipartisan support. The Army’s program funds innovative, groundbreaking research which would not otherwise have been pursued, and has produced major advances in NF research, including conducting clinical trials in a nation-wide clinical trials infrastructure created by NFRP funding. The Department of Defense fills a special role by providing peer-reviewed funding for innovative, high-risk/high-reward medical research through the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP). The well-executed and efficient programs within the CDMRP, including the NFRP, demonstrate the government’s responsible stewardship of taxpayer dollars. Research grants are awarded to researchers in every state in the country through a competitive two-tier review process. The Army’s highly successful NF Research Program has shown tangible results and direct military application with broad implications for the general population. Continued funding is needed to continue to build on the successes of this program, and to fund this promising research thereby continuing the enormous return on the taxpayers’ investment. I respectfully request that you include the House passed level of $12.8 million for the Army’s NF research program in the final version of the Fiscal Year 2012 Department of Defense Appropriations bill. Sincerely, Name & Address