About Us

What is Living with VWD Support Network?

Living with VWD is a dedicated patient-to-patient support community for families affected by VWD. VWD is powered by BensFriends.org, patient support communities for rare diseases, and is run by volunteer moderators who have been affected with VWD.

Who can join Living with VWD?

If your family has been affected by VWD, consider Living with VWD Support Network your second home. Living with VWD Support Network, as well as the rest of BensFriends.org’s patient communities, is free for members to join.

What is VWD?

Von Willebrand’s Disease is a common hereditary coagulation abnormality caused by a qualitative or quantitative deficiency of von Willebrand factor (vWF). Von Willebrand factor (vWF) is a protein that is essential for platelet adhesion.

There are three forms of VWD: inherited, acquired and pseudo or platelet type. There are three types of inherited VWD: Type I, Type II and Type III. Platelet type VWD is also an inherited condition.

VWD Type I is more common than Types II and III, and those that have it are typically asymptomatic or may experience mild symptoms such as nosebleeds, although there may be severe symptoms in some cases.

What is BensFriends.org?

In 2007, Ben Muñoz suffered a rare form of stroke caused by an AVM. He was unable to find the support he needed during the most difficult time, so he created an online support community AVMSurvivors.org to connect with others like him. AVMSurvivors.org led to the founding of BensFriends.org, driven to provide patient-to-patient support communities for people living with rare diseases.

BensFriends.org is a network of patient communities for people living with rare diseases. Launched in November 2007, BensFriends.org provides valuable patient support by creating and running compassionate, responsive communities. BensFriends.org maintains dozens of patient communities and has changed thousands of lives.

You can learn more about BensFriends.org at http://www.bensfriends.org or watch one of our videos at http://www.youtube.com/BensFriendsVideos.

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