Steelers' Ryan Clark seeks sickle cell disease cure
By Michael A. Fuoco / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Steelers safety Ryan Clark will be on the sideline during Sunday's season opener in Denver, just as he was in January's playoff game and in so many other frustrating visits to Denver since an Oct. 21, 2007, game in which the city's high altitude nearly killed him because he carries the sickle cell trait.
Mr. Clark lost his spleen, his gallbladder, 35 pounds and nearly his football career -- not to mention his life. But, he said, his experience was nothing compared to the pain people with the more serious and potentially fatal sickle cell disease suffer on a daily basis.
"Those are my heroes," Mr. Clark said at a news conference Tuesday at which he announced his effort to find a cure for the disease that killed his sister-in-law and affects more than 70,000 Americans and millions worldwide.
Ryan Clark's Cure League is a partnership between the football star, UPMC, the University of Pittsburgh's Vascular Medicine Institute, and the Institute for Transfusion Medicine, where former Pitt and Chicago Bears standout Jim Covert is chief executive officer.
Mr. Clark said he jumped at the chance when Mark Gladwin, director of the vascular medicine institute, approached him during the off-season to develop the partnership to raise awareness and research funding for a disease that has only one FDA-approved drug. The initiative's website is www.CureLeague.org, where donations can be made.
Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/sports/steelers/steeler-ryan-clark-seeks-sickle-cell-disease-cure-651900/#ixzz25buMGaoU
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