In August 2021, roughly a year since inception, Forge Biologics launched its Forge Ahead campaign to deliberately expand its impact by committing to raise awareness and support for people and families living with rare diseases.
The first annual Forge Family & Friends event kicked-off the campaign featuring Be The Match, a global leader in bone marrow transplantation, to support the organization’s efforts to recruit registry donors. Bone marrow transplants are crucial procedures for many in our patient community. Testing kits were on hand and eager potential life-saving donors—Forge team members, family, and friends—lined up to register.
Any movement for change starts with the people that pour their lives into believing something is possible. They have hope… a parent looking for relief for their child, or a scientist working undeterred in a lab. The people at Forge as well as at Be The Match and many other organizations, companies, researchers, advocacy and patient groups, are doing the difficult daily work of finding treatments and raising awareness for rare diseases. Their paths may be different, but their purpose is shared: to bring hope to those patients who need relief and treatments most, as quickly as possible.
Millions of people of all ages throughout the world live with a rare disease that still has no effective treatment. Forge Biologics was formed to address the need for gene therapy treatments and get them to patients faster. Through the Forge Ahead campaign, Forge and each of our team members, family members, clients and partners will be able to learn, support, and help spread the word about the need to find treatments for rare diseases and keep hope alive.
A Mountain of “HOPE”
Soon after the Forge Friends & Family Be The Match event, a group of Forge colleagues set out to climb Mt. Adams in Washington State with that same collective purpose: to raise awareness for the need to discover and produce treatments for patients living with rare diseases. Carrying a flag of “HOPE” unveiled and signed by team members at the event, the team hit the trailhead together early on August 12, 2021, and reached base camp that evening at 9,400 ft.
The Forge climbers shared the promise of adventure and camaraderie, and a deep sense of mission and urgency that all Forge team members and others working and living with rare disease feel. And that’s what drove them to the top. On August 13, the entire team reached the summit 12,276 ft. for hope.
Together, they climbed approximately 7,000 vertical feet, a symbolic milestone that highlights the 7,000 rare diseases that affect 1 in 10 people in the United States. Many have no treatments. But there is hope, and it drives people to conquer incredible feats. It starts with a with a single patient, the need to treat an illness, a person who believes anything is possible, and the people who become teams and entities dedicated to helping patients.
Forge is committed to helping patients and raising awareness for the need to find treatments. Forge Ahead with us.