Why Donate to It’s Just Benign, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization

1. This is the first website and support group where benign brain tumor patients and survivors can connect online (while remaining anonymous if they so choose).

2. It’s Just Benign ends isolation; right now more than 400 members can contact each other through the website, and those who live near each other can “connect” locally.

3. It’s Just Benign is international with members in South Africa, the United Kingdom, Canada, and all over the U.S.A.

4. The site allows benign brain tumor survivors to discuss and address not only the diagnosis and treatment of their disease but also the side effects of the latter including physical sequelae such as epilepsy, migraines, bad balance, and vision problems, as well as resulting emotional, psychological, and social problems.

5. Members are able to connect to others who share their specific concerns. For example, there are groups for childhood survivors, the wheelchair bound, and for those with chronic migraines, chronic seizures, depression and anxiety.

6. Members can ask specialists questions for free. Currently, a neurosurgeon (Shabbar F. Danish, MD, Director of Stereotactic & Functional Surgery at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, New Jersey) is answering questions and will be writing more about the latest treatments. Kathryn Allen, MA, RD, LD/N, CSO, (Director, Nutrition Therapy at 
H Lee Moffitt Cancer Center
 Usf Magnolia Drive Tampa, FL) addressed nutritional issues that the membership has.

7. By having members discuss issues, It’s Just Benign is helping survivors gain confidence and rid themselves of the shame of being different.

8. It’s Just Benign currently holds a monthly in-person support group for the central New Jersey membership. (See #2 Plans for the Future below.)

Plans for the Future

1. Educate the public (for example, through public speaking and brochures) about the physical as well as psychological consequences of the treatment of benign brain tumors.

2. Establish support groups, chapters of It’s Just Benign, in the different states and countries as the membership expands.

3. Determine how to help survivors get back to work, for example, by promoting education and training as well as job placement.

4. Invite more physicians and specialists (such as a psychiatrist and a physical therapist in addition to the neurosurgeon and nutritionist) to discuss matters related to current treatment options and side effects. 

5. Establish a system so that anyone leaving the hospital after neurosurgery for a benign brain tumor be referred to the It’s Just Benign  website by their physicians who would say “Once you are settled, go to www.itsjustbenign.org  if you want additional support and information and to “connect” other benign brain tumor survivors.

6. Obtain the financial support needed to maintain and run the It’s Just Benign website and to fund the many projects planned for the future.