"...We are excited about the new direction that our organization is taking…"

As many of you are aware, we have reached our tenth year as an organization.  We have been reflecting on our past decade, as well as making changes for the future.  Over the past ten years, our major highlights have been: three HELLP Syndrome Society Conferences, establishing a web site in 1996, development of three previous brochures, developing and tabulating our own survey and participation in the International Society for the Study in Hypertension in Pregnancy Conference held in Vienna, Austria.  We have met many wonderful people and established some long lasting friendships.  Sometimes it is just mind boggling how one tiny little baby girl ten years ago could bring so many people together.  We thank all of you for your support and friendship and your inspiration to keep us going to create awareness and push for a cure.  Many of you visited our new web site and some of you have seen our new brochure as well.  We also have a newly appointed State Representative Coordinator, Terri Andrews from North Carolina.  Her job is to work with all of the state reps to provide them with direction and support.  We appreciate these volunteers who have been so giving of their time.  Please read Terri's request for additional state reps included in this newsletter. 

Recently, Steve and I had the opportunity to participate in two national conferences.  The first was the annual Preeclampsia Foundation Conference, August 10-12, 2005 and the second was the North American Society for the Study of Hypertension in Pregnancy Conference, August 12-14, 2005.  Both conferences were held at the beautiful Oglebay Resort, Wheeling, W.Va., which is just minutes from our home.  We met excellent doctors and researchers in the medical field as well as reconnecting with contacts we met in Vienna.  Most exciting to us is the interest expressed by the doctors and researchers about looking more closely at the HELLP Syndrome Society's survey.  Dr. Baha Sibai and fellow researchers would like to review our surveys and are requesting that we gather medical records from our members to accompany the completed surveys.  Dr. Sibai is considered to be one of the foremost authorities on HELLP Syndrome in the world.  Please see the article in our newsletter under RESEARCH on how you can become involved. 

We are excited about the new direction that our organization is taking.  We have many more plans in the works, so keep checking our web site for new information.  We would also like to encourage you to visit the message board on our web site and respond to others' concerns.  This is another great way that you can provide emotional support to others.  We also want to remind you that our annual campaign will be coming out in November.  If you have changed addresses in the last year, please make sure that we have your current address on file.  We thank all of you for your continued support and volunteer efforts.