Dear Friends,

Christmas has come, and with it is the joy of special moments with family and friends. Christmas is also the feast of hope, and this year — the 20th Anniversary year of the Jerome Lejeune Foundation in France — I cannot help having in my innermost thoughts this crazy hope that in following the desire of my husband, the Foundation will contribute to the discovery of a medication to treat Down syndrome.

This hope that we all share is made possible by the generous support of over 100,000 donors in France for 20 years, and by the growing support for our new Foundation office in the United States. It is also thanks to the dedication of our researchers that we are allowed this growing hope in recent years, and through the work of many advocates and friends that we dare to hope that the most vulnerable will finally be accepted for who they are in our society.

As we come to the end of this year, I would like to thank our American friends for your generosity and support of the Jerome Lejeune Foundation USA. Your dedication to the mission of the Foundation in the US is a great source of our hope that together from France and the US, we can realize the hope of my husband in medical research to find treatments, and in the goodness of the human spirit to find love for those who are most in need of our care.

I wish you, on behalf of all the Foundation in Paris, a very beautiful Christmas season.

Thank you again for your support.

Birthe Lejeune
Vice President
Jerome Lejeune Foundation, Paris