Kelly Kemper's Birthday Campaign

Update! 

We are truly blown away by your support. Thank you to everyone who has donated and to all who have shared our story. In less than three days, you helped us reach our $10,000 goal! We feel your love, prayers, and encouragement so deeply, and both of us are profoundly grateful. Good days have been rare for us, but these last few have been filled with happy tears (from Kelly) and smiles (from Gabe). More than ever, we are reminded how much a strong community matters during hard times. 

We don't want to lose this incredible momentum. As my mom likes to say, birthdays deserve a whole week of celebrating - not just one day. While our fundraiser will still end on September 5, 2025, we're raising our goal to $20,000. We invite you to keep building on this extraordinary outpouring of community and hope. We have never felt so loved and honored. 

Please continue sharing our story. If just one family currently facing uncertainty of an undiagnosed disease is able to discover this organization and the hope it provides, we will have already surpassed any goal we could set. 

With gratitude and love, 

Kelly and Gabe

Our story started 4 years ago. Gabe off to college on an athletic scholarship to play lacrosse and Kelly feeling all of the happy sad emotions of one less child in the home.

And then life changed. A text, a call, another text, another call, something isn't right. Symptoms were not matching the normal diagnostic process and were mind boggling physicians, specialists and one really motivated mother.

An so began a journey that has led us deeper and deeper into the twisting world of rare and undiagnosed diseases. Appointments, referrals, testing, repeat repeat repeat. There is no guide book or patient navigation handbook for undiagnosed or rase diseases. No binder with an "if this happens then do this next" section. His illness seemed to only grow rarer. 

And then we heard about the Undiagnosed Disease Network and with it came hope and one seriously rigorous application process. After presenting them with records, test results and many physician testaments that he was baffling them, they took Gabe's case. To date, over 3300 people have been evaluated and about 30 percent of the most challenging medical mysteries have been solved using cutting edge technology, not available in the typical clinical setting. 

Hope is our commodity, our daily reminder that we can keep looking for answers. There are so many unknowns and so much hope for the future of diagnosis and research. The UDN took on Gabe's case and continues to work to find a reason, a treatment, a solution for a return to that life both of us so dearly want. 

This is a celebration story and as I turn 50 this week, I ask you to join us in supporting this extraordinary program. It serves families who feel there is no light at the end of the tunnel, who are exhausted and have exhausted all of the normal protocols for seeking a diagnosis. Please give the gift of hope with a donation to the Undiagnosed Disease Network Foundation.