The Matt Cwiertny Memorial Foundation is active and ready to hold its first official fundraising event! It's a benefit concert, featuring our good friends, The 88. Proceeds from the concert and silent auction will help the MCMF raise funds to fight the Epstein-Barr Virus and EBV-associated diseases. Join us on Saturday May 7th, 2011. Doors open at 5pm. It's ALL AGES. It's only $20. AND it's gonna be GREAT!
If you would like to help us out by donating a silent auction item, please let us know! That would be amazing. Thank you!
BUY YOUR $20 TICKETS AT: http://is.gd/PDUgHO
From The 88's Event page:
All proceeds from the event will aid the Matt Cwiertny Memorial Foundation in their efforts to support research for a cure of EBV and EBV - associated diseases.
Time: Saturday, May 7 · 5:00pm - 9:00pm
Location: The Echo · 1822 W Sunset Blvd · Los Angeles, CA
5pm doors open
6pm Taylor Locke & The Roughs
7pm The 88
Matt was a fan of The 88 and a dear friend to the band. He passed away at 24, and we are doing everything we can to honor his memory and help raise awareness about EBV. Come out and enjoy an evening of music, and help us raise money for the Foundation in his name.
Matt Cwiertny was a wonderful and vital 24-year-old young man who fought to overcome an immune system disorder that made him vulnerable to the Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV). Because there is not a vaccine for EBV, EBV overwhelmed Matt’s immune system on many occasions, leading him to develop EBV-Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis (HLH). HLH, also known as hemophagocytic syndrome, is a disorder of unregulated activation of lymphohistiocytic cells that results in hemophagocytosis, hypercytokinemia, and multi-organ (e.g., spleen, liver, lung, brain, or other vital organs) dysfunction, which without early treatment results in death. After a number of very severe battles with EBV-associated HLH, Matt developed non-Hodgkin’s NK T-cell lymphoma (cancer). In an attempt to cure his EBV–associated cancer, he underwent numerous rounds of chemotherapy and ultimately a Bone Marrow Transplant at The City of Hope in Duarte, CA, in late 2008. Sadly, in mid-2009, the disease returned and Matt became seriously ill with NK-T-cell brain lymphoma, which necessitated several rounds of brain radiation. While fighting a very severe episode of EBV-HLH, and just after completing a dozen sessions of brain radiation therapy that significantly weakened his immune system, Matt succumbed to his extremely rare EBV-associated diseases and passed away on October 3, 2009.
The mission of the Matt Cwiertny Memorial Foundation is the cure of EBV and EBV-associated diseases. The charitable and primary purpose of the Foundation is to raise funds to accomplish medical research needed to cure EBV and EBV - associated diseases, with emphasis upon cures for EBV-HLH and NK T-cell lymphoma. A secondary goal of the Foundation is raising public awareness of all EBV-associated diseases and the need to find cures for these rare and terrible diseases.
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UPDATE: Fixed the link for the MCMF website.
