2011 Year in Review

In 2006, I survived a life-threatening brain hemorrhage from a rare form of stroke called an AVM. The loneliness and anxiety I faced led me to create an online support community so that I could connect with other AVM patients. Then in 2008, former classmate and friend Scott Orn and I founded Ben's Friends Patient Communities.

2011 was a breakthrough year for Ben's Friends Patient Communities. We doubled in size, traffic, and members. We established key partnerships and relationships with such organizations as OrganizedWisdom.com, Livestrong.org, PatientPower.info, SavantMD.com, The Brain Aneurysm Foundation, The AVM and Aneurysm Foundation, and many, many more.

More importantly, we set up a great organizational structure for fulfilling the same mission that has been in place since day one: to ensure that everyone in the world with a rare disease has a safe place to go and connect with others like them.

During 2011, we achieved our goal of building an extremely efficient organization that is focused on helping patients, spreading the word and making the lives of those with rare diseases so much better. In 2011, we were able to have 30,000 visitors come to one of our communities every month for support, friendship, and information. Truly amazing!

Our plans for 2012 are to grow even bigger, help even more people, while continuing to live by the same values that we were founded on.

Our Core Values:

1. 1. change members' lives everyday
2. 2. make a difference
3. 3. do the right thing
4. 4. focus on communities & members
5. 5. get things done
6. 6. be authentic
7. 7. work together
8. 8. work on new things
9. 9. stay positive
10. 10. have fun doing all of the above

On behalf of all of our members and patient-visitors, thanks to all our volunteers, sponsors, and moderators for all that you do to make the world better for rare disease patients.