Ryan Gauss

Bethanys Hope Foundation

In July 1996, with the direction, guidance and compassion of many caring individuals, Lindey and David McIntyre established the Bethanys Hope Foundation with the purpose of developing fundraising mechanisms that could help support imperative research. It was soon realized that a Canadian driven initiative would be required to ensure a seamless transition of fundraising dollars from our Foundation to a team of researchers. Under the direction of Dr. Tony Rupar, in conjunction with Western University, the Bethanys Hope Leukodystrophy Research Laboratory was established in November 1999 in London, Ontario, Canada. We are proud of the medical breakthroughs that are being made in this world class laboratory, including the perspective of clinical trials for a Metachromatic Leukodystrophy (MLD) treatment in the near future. The Foundation has fought tirelessly to ensure that the faces and names of those suffering from the devastation of MLD are not forgotten, but instead given a voice of hope and dignity. To date, the Bethanys Hope Foundation, with the help of our dedicated donors, Sponsors partners and numerous Volunteers, have raised over $4 Million for Research, public education and family support. It is a continued battle to ensure that rare diseases such as MLD are not forgotten or dismissed, but instead brought to the forefront. However, this is not a battle that we can win without developing new fundraising initiatives in a very competitive non-profit space as well as the challenges we all face with the downturn of funding available due to the Covid 19 pandemic! Bethanys Hope Foundation has a very targeted but ambitious goal of completely funding clinical trials, which we hope will be in full operation by 2024! It is a race against the clock to raise the essential funds needed to ensure our tremendous progress continues. The Bethanys Hope Foundation is at a cross roads, with almost two-decades of extensive cutting edge Research complete,