Taylor (left), Kari, Antonio Gates, Alexa, Terry and Richard

With a new awareness and fundraising campaign entitled “One Too Many” and backed by Pro Bowl tight end Antonio Gates of the San Diego Chargers, HDSA-San Diego has launched a bold plan to raise a record $500,000 in 2010 towards the care of HD patients and research for treatments and a cure.

The chapter unveiled the plan at a May 4 press conference at Chargers Park attended by most San Diego-area media organizations, HDSA-San Diego board  members, and HD families as well as Gates, the  honorary chair of the Qualcomm Shoot to Cure HD, presented by Cymer.

HDSA-San Diego fundraising chair and Chargers Public Relations Director Bill Johnston kicked off the event with an explanation of the campaign.

“May is Huntington’s Disease Awareness Month,” said Johnston, whose wife Ramona has HD. “Building awareness is the most critical goal for our organization. Today we’re kicking off May … with our most aggressive campaign ever, entitled ‘One Too Many,’ because just one person with HD is one too many. Huntington’s disease is the most horrible disease that no one’s talking about, and it’s our goal to make people talk about it, to make people aware of it.”

HDSA-San Diego’s goal of raising $500,000 for care and research – double last year’s amount – would be a record for both the chapter and for all chapters nationally, Johnston explained.

As part of the campaign, Johnston presented two of the chapter’s upcoming events: the Qualcomm Shoot to Cure HD, presented by Cymer, and TDs to Cure HD.

“It’s just a great party,” Johnston said of the Shoot, which that takes place June 11 at Chargers Park. “Once people come and experience it, they always come back.”

“I’ve been a part of this Huntington’s disease Shoot to Cure for five years,” said Gates. “Just being a part of it has definitely touched me as a person. Over the past five years my whole focus has been to make people aware of this disease, try to raise money to cure the disease.  Just to see the awareness grow over the past five years has definitely been a blessing to me.”

Click here or on the Qualcomm logo to learn more about the Shoot.       

TDs to Cure HD gives every Chargers fan the opportunity to pledge support for HDSA-San Diego every time the team scores a touchdown during the 2010 season, Johnston said. Fans can win exciting prizes and other opportunities with the Chargers. Click here to learn more.

“I would have to say that Huntington’s disease is the absolute worst disease that I’ve ever encountered in my practice of medicine,” said Dr. Rebecca Ferrini, a Huntington’s disease specialist and medical director of Edgemoor, a County of San Diego facility in Santee where many HD patients live.

“What makes it so terrible is that it robs the patient of everything that makes them human. It robs them of their ability to control the movements of their own body, to speak, to have a job, to concentrate, to drive. It robs them of their mental health, their ability to cope with the illness. It robs them of their ability … to do anything for themselves. A particular terrible aspect is that it robs them of their ability to speak when they still have the wish to say. So it’s extremely frustrating.”

Dr. Leslie M. Thompson, a Huntington’s disease researcher at the University of California, Irvine, spoke on the drive to find treatments and a cure for HD.

“Now we have an even greater opportunity where you can take skin cells from patients, from people with the mutation, turn them into what are called stem cells, which are undeveloped cells, that can then go on and be guided into a neuron (brain cell),” said Dr. Thompson. “This is the first time that we’ve ever had the ability to look at the disease in a human context. And so that’s one of the reasons we have just this tremendous hope now to find treatments and cures.”

Dr. Thompson added that California is a leader in HD research, with scientists around the state and biotech companies examining stem cells and other approaches to stopping HD.

Gates, Johnston, Dr. Ferrini, and Dr. Thompson were flanked by members of the Leach and Shaffer families, both stricken with HD.

Terry Leach, 12, has juvenile Huntington’s disease (click here to read more about Terry’s fight against HD). His mother Angela, sister Jennie, and brother Richard also attended.

Sharon Shaffer has HD and her teenage daughters Alexa and Taylor and her cousin Kari Hartmann are at risk.

The Shaffers are part of Team2CureHD, an effort to cross America on bicycles in just a week in the Race Across America (RAAM), starting in Oceanside on June 12. Sharon’s husband Renato anchors the team. This is the family’s fourth time in the RAAM. Click here to learn more.

Click here to view our photo gallery of the press conference.

Click here to read the column by Kevin Acee, the Chargers beat reporter for the San Diego Union-Tribune, about the press conference.

Click here to hear 619Sports.Net's interview about the Shoot with Gates.

Click on the following link to read the official “One Too Many” press release: HDMonth2010PressRelease.

Click play below to watch the video of the press conference produced by Sharon Heilbrunn of the San Diego Union-Tribune.