Please join us during Gaucher Awareness Month by shopping on our auction site. The 6th Annual Gaucher Awareness Auction will be live from October 1 - 30, 2011. Tell your friends, spread the word and place bids all month!! The funds raised in this auction will support the National Gaucher Foundation and help people with Gaucher disease live better lives. The National Gaucher Foundation supports medical research to find alternative treatments and a cure for Gaucher and provides critical support to people with Gaucher and their families. Through outreach and education programs we strive to help every single person affected by this disease.

Gaucher disease is an inherited disorder caused by a defective gene affecting less than 10,000 people in the world. There are 3 types of Gaucher disease, and although there is treatment for Type 1, the most common type, it is expensive averaging $200,000 per person per year, sometimes costing as much as $500,000 per year. In order to keep symptoms under control, treatment is needed for life.

Symptoms can vary widely with the most common signs being enlargement of the liver and/or spleen, anemia, easy bruising, increased tendency for bleeding, bone pain and damage to the skeletal system. More rarely, the lungs and central nervous system are affected. For those with severe Gaucher disease, it can be life threatening. At present time, there is no cure.

You can help by shopping on this auction site.