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This year, I’m looking forward to a quiet Christmas at home in front of a crackling
fire with my family — free of seizures, shunt failures, and surgeries! As the
father of a child with hydrocephalus, I know the holidays can be an especially
challenging time. I still have vivid memories of my son’s first Christmas.
That December, at less than a year old, William had two seizures followed by
his first shunt failure. Needless to say, my wife, Lori, and I spent the holiday
season on seizure watch, filled with anxiety.

But now, more than five years and five brain surgeries later, William is one
of the most joyful and energetic kids I know. In January, my wife and I will
celebrate his seventh birthday, along with three years since his last surgery
and eighteen months since his last hospital visit.

Throughout it all, the Hydrocephalus Association has been a source of information,
comfort and hope. I first turned to HA to learn more about William’s mysterious
diagnosis. And then again to find and connect with others for support and advocacy.
And now, with the launch of our Research Initiative, I turn to the Hydrocephalus
Association for hope and the promise of major breakthroughs in the treatment
of hydrocephalus, which will lead to a better future for William and hydrocephalus
sufferers everywhere.

That’s why I’m also writing to ask you to make a year-end gift to the Hydrocephalus
Association.

In the years since I joined the board in 2006 and became chairman in 2009,
the Hydrocephalus Association has gone from being a national support organization
to the largest private funder of hydrocephalus research. And we have used that
bully pulpit to encourage the NIH to spend more time, effort and money on hydrocephalus
research. That’s progress.

During this holiday season, please take a moment to imagine a world without
hydrocephalus and send a year end gift to the Hydrocephalus Association. You
can do that by simply clicking on this link.

I wish you and your loved ones good health and happiness for the holidays and
the New Year.

Paul H. Gross