Vice President Biden, David Axelrod, and Citizens United for Research in Epilepsy (CURE)


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In Chicago, on June 20, 2011 Vice President Joe Biden, spoke to the Citizens United for Research in Epilepsy (CURE) and offered his hope that ways will be found to heal this brain illness:

“’I can only imagine what it’s like to stare at your child while their eyes roll back in their head,’ Biden said at Navy Pier’s Grand Ballroom. “But the truth is, I believe with every fiber of my being that (a cure) is just around the corner,'” noted Biden, who was quoted in an article in the Chicago Tribune.

In his speech, Biden gave credit to Susan Axelrod, wife of former presidential political adviser David Axelrod, who helped found CURE in 1998. The Axelrod’s oldest daughter began to have seizures at the age of seven; Mrs. Axelrod along with two other mothers founded CURE out of their homes, and held early meetings around their kitchen tables.

“’Each one of us holds out some hope that we can make a breakthrough,’ Axelrod said before the dinner. ‘What our goal has been is to seed the kind of research that the government won’t yet seed because it’s not fully proven.” Parents of children with epilepsy can feel isolated, Axelrod said.’It felt like we had to be the only people in the world going through this nightmare,’ he said, recalling the frustration he and his wife felt at their limited ability to help their daughter. ‘A whole community has grown up around this foundation.’”

Almost 900 people attended the event in support of CURE, and this brought in over $800,000 to conduct research and raise awareness of epilepsy and its devastating psychological effects on children as well as the dynamic of whole families.


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