Betty is a former United States Naval officer who was stationed at Treasure Island Naval Base off the coast of San Francisco. She specialized in encrypted communications encoding and decoding secret messages for the United States Military. After retiring from the Navy, Betty worked as a court reporter in California and now resides in San Francisco.
Betty first learned about SAF while searching the internet. She realized her hair was slowly disappearing and knew something had to be done. She did not realize that her diagnosis of lichen planopilaris (LPP) was a form of scarring alopecia until she checked with her physician. Betty believes that there are other patients, just like her, who have this condition but don’t know it, because they have not seen a specialist who can make a proper diagnosis.
While attending a SAF patient conference in Minneapolis, Betty enjoyed meeting other patients with scarring alopecia. However, she was frustrated by the unanswered questions and mystery that surrounds the disease. Betty believes SAF’s challenge of promoting awareness among doctors, patients, and research scientists, is possible by uniting patients. When asked if there was anything good about having cicatricial alopecia, Betty commented that, “I suppose if you must be cursed with something, this is not as bad as many other things. And if patients unite, together we can find a cure by supporting SAF.”
Betty continued, “I want to help fund a cure. SAF is a great candidate for my charitable contributions because I know the money will be used for research. This is one of the main goals of SAF. I can only say to others that investing in SAF is in their own best interest. If anyone is going to find an answer, it’s going to involve patients working together. After attending the Minneapolis patient conference a few years ago to learn more about the disease, I left feeling more determined than ever to help find better treatments as well as a cure.”
