Diamond Designs Sponsors Jewelry Pop-Up Booth For Cure Rare Disease

Diamond Designs of Orange was a major sponsor at the recent “September Under the Stars” fundraiser event for Cure Rare Disease at the Pine Orchard Country Club in Branford, CT.

Max Herzog is an eight-year-old boy from Branford who was diagnosed 5 years ago with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. Max’s mom and dad were devastated with the news and searched every available outlet for answers. That’s where they came across Rich Horgan’s organization.

Cure Rare Disease (CRD) mission is to Develop Life-Saving Therapies for Rare Neuromuscular Diseases. Founder Rich Horgan’s brother Terry was diagnosed with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. Rather than simply watch his brother and countless other boys get weaker as the disease takes over, he organized CRD and solicited the greatest minds in research to help. Gene therapy is the future of treating rare, genetic diseases that were previously thought to have no cure. CRD is breaking down what gene therapy is and how we are using gene therapy to develop therapies for neuromuscular diseases including Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), limb-girdle muscular dystrophy subtypes, and spinocerebellar ataxia type 3 (SCA3). Originally located in Massachusetts, the organization worked with UMASS Medical School in addition to an extensive network of academic and industry collaborations across the United States, Canada and Europe. CRD offices recently relocated to Woodbridge, CT and continues to work closely with Yale School of Medicine as well.

“The story of Max hit home for me and my wife as our boys are the same age as he is,” said Dee Dadlani, jewelry designer at Diamond Designs. “It’s unimaginable to have a condition like this affect your family. We want to be able to help this organization in any way we can to find a cure from this disease.”

Diamond Designs has participated in the CRD fundraiser three out of the five years the event has been held. Donating auction items, contributing a percentage of all sales to the event, and personally pledging a significant amount for gene research, Dadlani is committed to being a part of Team Max.

Diamond Designs is located at 500 Boston Post Road in Orange. Contact at 203.799.7999 or www.dia-designs.com

Photo: L to R

Dee Dadlani, Jordan Smith, jewelry consultant