Scott Johnson, Myelin Repair Foundation President & Founder was recently awarded the 2010 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award for the Northern California region. This is a great honor, especially since this award generally goes to a “for profit” entrepreneur.

What you might not know about Scott, is that he was diagnosed with MS at age 20, living his entire adult life with the disease. He became a serial entrepreneur, starting multiple companies and consulting for the Boston Consulting Group. After he left the business world, he made it his personal mission to find a treatment for MS, applying his past experience in creating the Myelin Repair Foundation. With the MRF, he is now able to make a significant impact on other people with MS around the world.

I love that Scott was recognized in this way, and it is clearly a well deserved award, but the benefit extends to all of us fighting MS. By winning this award, Scott Johnson brings mainstream awareness to Myelin repair. Before my MS diagnosis, I didn’t even really know what Myelin was and I think it is safe to say that most people don’t know what it is, and if they do, they don’t know how important it is to MS patients and others living with neurological diseases and conditions.

Hopefully with this awareness comes more support to the Myelin Repair Foundation in terms of donors and supporters and of course, more ideas, collaboration and research to bring us a cure! Thanks Scott and the MRF for all that you do!

The Patient’s Manifesto

• I believe that patients are not getting an adequate return on the billions of government, non-profit and industry dollars being spent on the research and development of new patient treatments.
• I believe that academic scientists, government funding and regulatory agencies, non-profit disease research foundations, commercial biotech and pharmaceutical companies, and entrepreneurs should aggressively seek new ways to accelerate the pace of medical research and the development of new patient treatments for the billions living with diseases who can’t afford to wait.

Sign this manifesto now!

I just delivered the first print from The Ride Project. It was a framed 8 X 10 of Spin. Here we go!!I am mailing a check for $125.00 to the Myelin Repair Foundation. Only $999,875 left to go!

Merry Christmas!

This weekend is all about getting ready to launch therideproject.com so I can start dontating BIG MONEY…$1,000,000 to the Myelin Repair Foundation. They recently started a great blog. Check it out here.

The Ride Project weekend to do list:

1. Pick Logo (thanks for your input!!)

2. Work on some surf images

3. Prepare content for website

This project came together because of several “perfect storm” factors but here is the image that started it all….

If you have ever cracked open a perfect walnut, you will understand why I love the phrase, “in a nutshell”. Everything is right where it should be, simple, a perfect fit.

So here it is, theRIDEproject in a nutshell….

A. I am going to donate $1,000,000 to the the Myelin Repair Foundation through photography sales of limited edition prints focusing on things that move. MS stops people from moving. TheRIDEproject stops MS.

B. therideproject.com will be live the beginning of September and will include: my blog (reinvented), more resources for you, information on the ride project bike team, how to join or start your own team and raise money for the MS Society.

C. I will be sharing new, really cool cycling images to start, with more images coming from the surfing, skiing, maybe even horseback riding world. Yes, you can buy these images or tell your cycling enthusiast friends about them.

D. You will be able to track how much money I dontate to the Myelin Repair Foundation and learn more about the organization and their research model and updates at the ride project website.

Questions you might have:

Why are you “reinventing” your blog? For almost three years I have written to you about ME, about MY diet, about MY MS, about MY relapses, MY struggles, MY successes.  Blogging has been invaluable to my MS journey and will continue to be an intergral part of my constant search for balance and wellness. I am so grateful that you have indulged me and connected with me. Thank you for picking me up when I was down, for challenging my ideas and supporting my crazy ways! Now, I want to give YOU things that you can take away and use in YOUR journey. I want to offer helpful information for MS patients and anyone that wants to live a healthier life. You don’t need an MS diagnosis or another disease to know that you are not healthy.

How will the ride project help to find a cure? By supporting an organization that takes a new approach to finding a cure. “The Myelin Repair Foundation is the only research organization that addresses every phase in the drug discovery process, from initial research all the way to licensing by commercial drug developers. This is the only way to ensure that promising research results in real patient treatments – in the shortest amount of time. We combine this holistic approach with our renowned scientific team and collaborative research model.” Read more at the Myelin Repair Foundation.

Tysabri works so well for you, do you really need “a cure”? Yes, I NEED a cure, You NEED a cure, and generations to come NEED a cure. When I was first diagnosed, I remember hearing, over and over again, “You are so lucky, 15 years ago, there wasn’t even treatment for MS”. I do feel lucky and so grateful that there are options to treat MS, and I thought that was enough but I want more. We deserve more!

What can I do to help make theRIDEproject a success? There are so many ways that you can help, but most immediately I need your input. Please, tell me what you think. Ask questions. Send great ideas. Challenge me. And, most importantly, be the cure you are waiting for.