YOU CAN HELP
it’s easier than you think
YOU CAN HELP
it’s easier than you think
Although The Dercum Society does not accept monetary donations, there are still many ways in which you can help and we sincerely thank you for your interest and generosity.

Most importantly, if you believe you may be suffering from Dercum’s Disease, the best thing you can do is make an appointment to visit with your doctor and help to educate them on the disease. Taking care of your own health and well-being has to be your number one priority! You can’t be an effective advocate if you neglect your health.

Priority One: You
Priority One: You
You simply can’t be an effective advocate if you neglect your health. Your first priority to help the Dercum’s community must be to take care of yourself. Please don’t ever let anyone convince you that you have a duty to risk your health for any reason – either to be a so-called “guinea pig”, to work too hard, or to give away too much money – to the detriment to your health. Your health is priority number one, period. The more people who are able to attain a decent quality of life with Dercum’s Disease, the better off we’ll all be. Please, take care of yourself and your health first. You and your health are both precious.
Awareness
One of the biggest challenges with Dercum’s Disease isn’t necessarily a lack of research, it’s lack of awareness. It’s impossible to accurately diagnose a disease if you don’t even know it exists. That’s precisely the situation many doctors and patients find themselves in with Dercum’s Disease – they just don’t know it’s a possibility. It’s incredibly easy and costs literally nothing to help solve this problem.

Talk! Open your mouth. Type. Email. Tweet. Facebook. Instagram. Talk to your family and friends. Talk to your doctors, talk to your nurses, talk to your medical providers. Be an open book. Talk to everyone who will listen! Share your story. Share medical journal articles. Be as knowledgable as possible about the details, science, and research. Share all of it.

Each person you can educate about Dercum’s Disease increases the odds that someone who is out there suffering right now might finally find precious answers. Right now you can help make that happen. It won’t cost a dime, but the results are absolutely priceless.

If you are with the media, anything you could to help educate the public about this disease and promote further education and evaluation, your help would be greatly appreciated. You can contact the Dercum Society’s founder, Heather Lawver, for additional information and materials. We would be happy to assist you in any way that we can. To contact us, click here.

Contact Us
Research
The Dercum Society would like to promote and encourage further study of Dercum’s Disease. Although we do not perform studies ourselves, we would be more than happy to help facilitate research in any way that we are able. If you feel you can help in any way with this endeavor, we encourage you to contact us.

The only current proper, ethical, double blind clinical research we’re aware of into Dercum’s Disease is being performed from time to time at The National Institutes of Health. They are a world renowned, highly respected medical research institution and would be very well deserving of your donations, if you are so inclined. Not only do they provide some of the best medical research in the world, they also support PubMed, the international database of peer-reviewed medical journal articles.
There are many ways you can donate! NIH is always looking for blood and platelet donors through the NIH Blood Bank. You can contribute financially through the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health. If you are able to donate, we can’t think of any organization more deserving.

Naturally, several large medical universities all across the globe also occasionally undertake new research initiatives and may begin new programs. We are more than happy to help and support them in any way that we can.

We Don’t Accept Donations

The Dercum Society is funded entirely by our founder, purely for the purpose of providing scientifically-based information for patients, doctors, caregivers, family, and the public. We aren’t asking for money, but we would like to ask for your support in spreading awareness.

Educate Yourself
EDUCATE YOURSELF
As always, we wish to impress upon you the importance of fully understanding the nature of medical research. Yes, it at times can feel painfully slow, but it is slow, cautious, and careful for a very good reason: people’s lives depend on it. Yours, mine, and future generations. Unfortunately there are far too many people trying to cut corners, which is incredibly dangerous not only to the individuals involved, but to the reputation of the Dercum’s community as a whole. Please take the time to educate yourself about what exactly medical research is, the safety and scientific standards involved, and how to spot the red flags of pseudoscience. To get you started, we’ve created an entire section of our website dedicated to it.
Defining Research
Lifestyle Advice
Donations