September Named Tay-Sachs Awareness Month
The Senate this July voted unanimously to name September National Tay-Sach’s Awareness Month. The resolution was introduced by Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio and co-sponsored by Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana. At this point, Tay-Sachs, a hereditary degenerative neurological disease, has no cure. The National Tay-Sachs & Allied Diseases Association, Inc., the oldest genetic disease organization in America, has endorsed Brown’s resolution.
The initiative was set into motion by an Ohio family with a daughter suffering from the disease. The Bihns of Olmsted Falls wrote to Brown and proposed the measure as a way to increase awareness and raise funds for research. Tay-Sachs is always fatal in children, with many not living beyond the age of 5. Dakota Bihn is 9. September is seen by the Bihns as a starting point for 12 months of fundraising — with a goal of $1 million.
“Tay-Sachs is a devastating disease that is often overlooked and misunderstood,” Brown said. “This disorder requires our close attention. The more people who are aware of the risk posed by Tay-Sachs, the more lives we can potentially save.”
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO