User:Akusociety/sandbox

The AKU Society was set up in December 2003, initially with the aim of developing a website to provide information and support to alkaptonuria sufferers. It began with just two members: an AKU patient, Robert Gregory, and his doctor, Dr Lakshminarayan Ranganath. Since then we have grown rapidly, helping several sister arms of the AKU Society to become established in different markets, including ALCAP in France, AIM AKU in Italy, DSAKU in Germany and AKU Society North America in the US and Canada. Plans to expand into Slovakia, Jordan and the Netherlands are under way. From identifying just one AKU patient in 2003, we have since recognised more than 80 in the UK and 650 worldwide. In 2008 the AKU research team in Liverpool and the AKU Society set up the findAKUre coalition, working through a scientist-patient partnership model to develop treatments for AKU. The coalition has grown significantly in just a few years: our collaborators include scientists, patients and companies from the UK, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Poland, the US, Canada, Slovakia, Jordan, Germany, Sweden and other countries. Today the AKU Society makes a real difference to people living with alkaptonuria through proactive support of medical research and development into the disease.