Nicola Mendelsohn, the vice-president of Facebook, has launched a new charity to find a cure for incurable blood cancer, follicular lymphoma, which she and thousands of other people have been diagnosed with.
The charity called Follicular Lymphoma Foundation (FLF) has been dedicated solely to funding clinical studies that find new treatments and cures for follicular lymphoma. The charity aims to raise $20m in its first three years in the hope to find a cure to the condition within the next 10 years.
Mendelsohn told Yahoo Finance UK, “Despite hundreds of thousands of people living with follicular lymphoma it has a very low profile and there has been comparatively very little investment into the disease.”
“An average 20-year survival from diagnosis might look good on paper, but I’m in my 40s with a husband and four beautiful children that I want to see grow up. It’s not enough, and I’m not satisfied when we know that the knowledge and technology is available that puts a cure within our grasp,” she added.
The Facebook top boss was diagnosed with follicular lymphoma in the winter of 2016.
Mendelsohn previously told Lianna Brinded, the Head of Yahoo Finance UK, “That weekend was without question — because I was a bit in limbo, we didn’t know what it may not have been — the worst weekend of my life.”
“I was able to go about 18 months with it before I needed treatment, which I did last summer, and I had to have chemo and immunotherapy, which is not … I mean, it was horrific,” she added.
The 48-year-old said people could react differenty to treatment because not all treatments and cancers are the same.
She said “I was able to work through. I had great support and I was lucky and I had great doctors and now this is part of me. I will continue to be monitored. I feel well. I feel good.”
In December 2018, Mendelsohn revealed that she is into remission. She tweeted, “Results in post 6mnths chemo & immunotherapy, I’m in remission! Here’s me on my first & last treatment day. Grateful to the amazing Drs & nurses who helped me through this. Thanks to family & friends & to everyone at work for the love and support that you gave to me.”
When she was first diagnosed with this incurable blood cancer, she researched her condition and came across the “Living with Follicular Lymphoma” Facebook group, which now has over 6,000 members. She told Brinded, “They are my best source of advice and inspiration and sounding board when I’m just going ‘has anyone had … We share deeply personal things with one another because we’re there to help one another.”
