Kris McMenamin
Arlington, Va.

The pull of friendship is strong.

Kris McMenamin knows.

Association Board Member and fellow Catalyst Amy Squires is one of her good friends. She invited McMenamin to a recent event in Washington, D.C., to learn more about The Catalyst Fund, and McMenamin followed her lead in making a gift to support it.

But she also has a very good friend who got sick years ago. “Of course, they didn’t know what it was,” she says. “I saw her forced to lead an alternative lifestyle because of this illness, and that was a lot of my motivation to get involved.”

McMenamin calls The Catalyst Fund a “game-changer. Figuring out a portfolio of leading-edge, almost avant garde topics to be studied – anybody facing the challenge of cross-system intervention should be looking to do this. You have to be game-changing here,” she says.

She’s also impressed with the Association’s return-on-investment (ROI). “For every dollar you put out there, another seven dollars follow. That’s amazing, that kind of ROI! With not much money, I could contribute to that ROI and my small gift could make a big difference,” she says. “I make other gifts, but I don’t think the possible return is as big – I don’t think those gifts will yield the value my gift will here. It’s exciting that my dollars can make that kind of difference.”

Like fellow Catalyst Mike Atherton [hyperlink to his profile], McMenamin sees returns beyond CFS for The Catalyst Fund. “There’s a host of diseases with a kernel of commonality. I’m hopeful that whatever is funded will seed benefits for not only this disease, but other diseases.”

Click here to learn more about THECatalystFUND and to read other Catalyst profiles.

Your gift to THECatalystFUND will help speed discovery and transform the way that CFS research is conducted. Online gifts can be made through our secure donations page at: http://bit.ly/2011fund. Donations are tax-deductible to the full extent permitted by law.