DONATE TO MCC RESEARCH AT DR. NGHIEM'S LAB AT THE UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON

Any money you choose to donate would be used to advance three main goals related to Merkel cell carcinoma:

· Educating new Merkel cell carcinoma patients and their physicians about this serious and uncommon disease. Our Merkel cell carcinoma website serves as a resource for patients around the world, free of charge, to help guide management of this disease about which many physicians are not familiar.

· Determining the best care strategies. We are leading a multi-institutional effort to create the largest and most comprehensive database of Merkel cell carcinoma patients. This resource will be used to help determine which of the available treatments are most effective for a given patient with Merkel cell carcinoma.

· Discovering the biology and genetics of Merkel cell carcinoma. We are characterizing what causes Merkel cell carcinoma using patient tumor samples and state of the art technologies in our research lab. Using this information, the goal is then to identify new and more effective therapies for this lethal and poorly understood disease.

While portions of our research endeavors can be very expensive, all contributions help make a difference. For example, our website is exclusively supported by donors. Funds are used for server fees, updates and website maintenance, and we are now also working towards increasing the visibility of our website so that newly diagnosed patients and their physicians may find us early after diagnosis -- the most critical time.

Your donation to our Merkel cell carcinoma research effort would be tax deductible, and100% of your donation would go directly to our research and educational efforts. The family will also receive an acknowledgement letter when a donation is made "in honor" or "in memory" of an MCC patient.

If you are interested in supporting these efforts, please make your check payable to

"University of Washington MCC Research" and send to:

Paul Nghiem, MD, PhD

University of Washington, Dermatology

815 Mercer St.

Brotman Building - Room 242, Box 358050

Seattle, WA 98109

Alternately, you can now make your donation online via UW Foundation:

1. Go to https://secure.gifts.washington.edu/uw_medicine/gift.asp?source_typ=2&source=EFF

2. Select "Merkel Cell Carcinoma Fund" (found on the list)

3. Click "Continue" and fill out form with your information.