Quotes from Opening Day

THE LYME & TICK-BORNE DSIEASES RESEARCH CENTER AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

Pat Smith, LDA President

“This is a banner day for everyone connected to Lyme disease and those at risk for tick-borne diseases. Columbia University now houses a premier center which will focus efforts on a definitive Lyme test, chronic Lyme disease, tissue studies, and even tick pathogens. The unsettled science which has clouded diagnosis and treatment will be closely examined in an environment where researchers are interested in discovering the truth about Lyme disease.”

Brian Fallon, MD, Director, Lyme & Tick-Borne Diseases Research Center

Benefits accrue exponentially when scientists from multiple disciplines apply their specific expertise to solve complex problems.  This is what is so tremendously valuable about this new Lyme and Tick-Borne Diseases Research Center at Columbia, as the solutions to fundamental diagnostic and treatment questions require the coordinated effort of highly skilled scientists using the latest in biotechnology that only a university-based center can provide.  

My deep gratitude to all those whose commitment helped create this world-class center for Lyme disease research. For many of us, it is also a center for hope.  We now know there is support 

for the best minds in science and medicine to work toward more accurate diagnosis and more effective treatment of a widespread and devastating disease

 
Rebecca Wells, Author

Sometimes when I am weak, lying in bed, I think of those with Lyme who cannot turn from side to side and I give thanks.  Sometimes when I am, strong and can exercise a bit,  I think of those who cannot walk, and I give thanks.  Gratitude is what keeps me going. 

I have great gratitude for the opening of this Center.  I pray that the research done here will be blessed with good work, work that gives those of us suffering with Lyme hope and healing, work that flows from the minds and hearts and bodies of those doing the research into the bodies, hearts, and minds of we who daily do our best to claw our way, in darkness, out of the trenches of Lyme.  I pray that the work that this Center grows will help soften the world that Lyme patients live in, and widens our world with the healing power of knowledge. 

In our shared longing for knowledge, all of us– those who live with Lyme; those who work to heal; those who work to shed light on the labyrinthine passages of this disease through research; and those, who with their activism, move us forward, will, create a force field so strong that no shape-shifting spirochete can stop it.  We shall walk hand in hand, and make it clear to the unknowing, and those who know, but turn their heads in greedy denial that we will no longer let Lyme flourish in darkness.  The light we shine shall be a healing light.  The movement from ignorance to knowledge will be felt in the bones of those who cannot turn over in bed, who cannot walk.  Knowledge is power, and real power remembers the weak, the ill, and the forgotten.  We shall not forget anyone who suffers.  The search is a brave one, and will touch us all.