A Cure Within Reach: Paul’s 10-Year Vision for WM
At the recent American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting in December, IWMF Board Chair Paul Kitchen met with IWMF patient advocacy partner, Patient Power, to share his powerful perspective on how far the Waldenstrom macroglobulinemia (WM) community has come and where we are headed next.
For Paul, WM wasn’t just a personal diagnosis, as his mother was diagnosed with the disease in the late 1970s at a time when treatments were scarce. “She never met another WM patient. I’ve met thousands,” Paul recalled.
Paul’s own journey began decades later. While serving as a headmaster of a boarding school, he faced a cycle of persistent infections. After years of managing symptoms with IVIG, his hemoglobin dropped, and his IgM climbed, leading to a bone marrow biopsy and formal diagnosis of WM in 2014.
During the interview, Paul emphasized the stark contrast between his mother’s era and the modern research landscape. As the key funding organization for WM research globally, IWMF is currently pushing the boundaries of what is possible.
“We at IWMF believe that we are going to find a cure for WM in the next 10 years,” Paul stated. “All the indications we have from our leading physicians and researchers agree that there’ll be a practical cure within the next decade.”
Tune in to Paul’s full interview here, and learn more about our Advocacy Partner by visiting their website, Patient Power.