2012 Rare Disease Champion Award

The 2012 Uplfting Athletes Rare Disease Champion poll is closed!  The award is given to a leader in college football, individual or organization, who has realized his or her potential to make a positive and lasting impact on the rare disease community. Uplifting Athletes believes the accomplishments of all the finalists are admirable. The stories of adversity and triumph were not only inspiring to us as an organization, but also to the communities in which these leaders reside.  Online voting ended February 26th.

Click on the links below to read the inspiring stories of the 2012 finalists.

Rex Burkhead U. of Nebraska

Wayne Crawford NC State

Luke Gane UCLA

David Lerner U. of Florida

Thanks for taking time to read the stories of all finalists.  Uplifting Athletes believes they are all destined for success.

Past Winners

• Princeton's Jordan Culbreath was named the 2011 Rare Disease Champion. Jordan was an inspiration for his teammates and an inspiration to the rare disease community. Read his uplifting story!
• Dickinson College's Ian Mitchell was named the 2010 Rare Disease Champion. Mitchell raised more than $95,000 in his collegiate career in honor of a childhood friend who passed away from a rare form of bone cancer. More than 20,000 votes were cast; Mitchell amassed 8562 votes or more than 41% of the votes. Read his uplifting story!
• The 2009 recipient was Grant Teaff of the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA), selected for its nation-wide effort to raise awareness about Duchenne Muscular Distrophy through their one-day event "Coach to Cure MD", which raised more than $230,000 in 2008.