Taylor Hicks Helps Raise $2,200,000 for Natalie's Wish

[Taylor Hicks]

Miracles and Milestones was the theme for the 2013 Natalie’s Wish Celebration. It turned out to be especially prophetic even to those who have come to expect the extraordinary from the Cystinosis Research Foundation. This year’s gala achieved several important milestones including the largest number of attendees, 450 – and the greatest number of dollars ever raised for cystinosis research in a single night, $2,200,000. Click here to read more about Taylor's participation and view pictures from the gala.

About the Cystinosis Research Foundation:

Formed in 2003, the Cystinosis Research Foundation’s (CRF) mission is two-fold and focused; to find better treatments and a cure for cystinosis.

Jeff and Nancy Stack are the parents of a child with a rare, metabolic disease called cystinosis. On the eve of their daughter Natalie's twelfth birthday, she made a wish that no child should ever have to make; "to have my disease go away forever". Her wish, scribbled on a napkin because she was embarrassed to say the wish out loud, catapulted the Stacks into action. They had to share her story and formed a non-profit foundation called the Cystinosis Research Foundation.

Cystinosis is a rare, genetic, metabolic disease that slowly destroys every organ in the body, including the liver, kidneys, eyes, muscles, thyroid and brain. There is a medicine that prolongs the children’s lives, but there is no cure.

Prior to the establishment of the CRF, cystinosis research studies were few and far between and cystinosis clinical research and multi-year research studies were rare.

If you would like to help in the CRF in their quest to find a cure for cystinosis and give hope to the families living with this devastating disease, please visit www.cystinosisresearch.org.

[Mavis A Tofte]

Taylor is a gifted man who gives of himself to support others less fortunate. Giving this support enriches us all as he shares his multi talented skills with us all.