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• MESOTHELIOMA APPLIED RESEARCH FOUNDATION INC

Where do you turn when you've diagnosed with a deadly disease you can't even pronounce? The Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation Inc., helped by dear childhood friend by providing her and her family with up-to-date research materials, treatment options, an incredible support system and hope.

My husband was diagnosed December 31, 2001 with meso at the young age of 39. We were told the same by our local physician, get your affairs in order, travel to Europe etc....you have 6 to 8 months to live. I immediately hit the internet that New Year's Eve night and located the Meso Foundation. Left them a message and received a call from Chris Hahn, the Executive Director that January 2, 2002. I contribute that initial contact to my husbands' survial of 5 years. He succumbed to the disease December 21, 2006 at the age of 44. The outstanding caring, knowledge, assistance this foundation has given my family is beyond words. My heartfelt thank you and gratitude to this wonderful organization.

MARF is THE key Meso resource to patients, caregivers and the scientific community! It is there to help, guide, educate and provide support and research resources!!!

After a 2 week stay in the hospital, my husband was diagnosed w/pleural meso in March of 2008. He was only 51. The pulmonologist told us to go home & get our affairs in order. Of course, we didn't do that but started on a chemo regimen with a local oncologist. It has been 16 months & we've had our ups & downs with this horrific disease. The day of the diagnosis, I got on the internet & found MARF. After looking at other sites, MARF was the most informative & personable site & so started our relationship with staff, victims, volunteers, widows, caregivers and world of information to help in our fight with meso. Everyone is so caring & compassionate because they too, have been touched by this disease on a personal level. Most importantly this foundation has given us hope.

Samual & Pappaw

Nicholas reading to Pappaw

The Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation (MARF) or Meso Foundation as it is commonly known looks after the interest of patients and families that are victims of this deadly but preventable disease. As there is virtually no research funded by the government or by any other groups the available treatment arsenal hasn’t changed much over the last 30 years contrary to the progress seen in eg Breast, Colorectal, Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and Multiple Myeloma to mention just a few malignant diseases that have seen the impact of newer treatment modalities. The other side of Mesothelioma is the money, due to the asbestosis litigation which makes every patient a potential gold mine for those few law firms that are selected to represent the patient. Thus, there is a lot of advertisement from respectable and less respectable trial attorneys trying to attract a potential client. For a person with a newly diagnosed deadly malignant disease, with a name you can hardly pronounce, it’s not an easy task to navigate the turbulent waters of the excessive but not always necessary information flow. No wonder patients and families feel lost and confused in a time of significant stress and chock. MARF was founded to be a non-biased support group, initially helping patients with the information flow, supporting patients who can ill afford to travel for a consultation with the few and far apart clinical experts, supporting the family in difficult times and not least trying to find money for the much needed basic and clinical research, compensating for all the lost ground that the years of neglect and ignorance has caused. The Meso Foundation has as it’s ultimate long term goal to find the tools that will cure the disease and to work with other organizations to find ways to eradicate this preventable disease. As an Oncologist, Clinical Research Physician and Scientist working within the Meso Foundation finding a way to make the public, the medical community and the “government” aware and engaged in taking on the fight against Mesothelioma and reaching out to the many patients and families that are victims of this deadly but preventable malignant disease to help and support them is a noble and important task. I call on you to help me/us in doing the same, we are long overdue with dealing with this disease and you can make the difference.