Grateful Guinea Pig Tote Bag

All proceeds from the sale of this shirt (10% of the purchase price) will be donated to the Arthritis Foundation of Orange County. This logo was designed by Tristan Dalley for the Grateful Guinea Pig team for the 2014 Walk to Cure Arthritis-Orange County/Inland Empire. The team organizer, Sarah Kelman, was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in 2006. RA is an autoimmune disease. That means her body's immune system mistakenly attacks healthy tissue. This leads to inflammation of joints and surrounding tissues. The doctors call what is happening to Sarah “Negative rheumatoid factor polyarthritis.” RFNegPA is a relatively rare version of RA that doesn’t respond to the usual RA treatments very well. Because RFNegPA doesn't respond to the usual medications, Sarah gets to be a guinea pig for orphan drugs. Orphan drugs are developed through an FDA program to fund research and development of drugs and biologics intended for the safe and effective treatment, diagnosis or prevention of rare diseases that affect fewer than 200,000 people in the U.S., or that affect more than 200,000 persons but are not expected to recover the costs of developing and marketing a treatment drug. The Arthritis Foundation works with the FDA's Office of Orphan Products Development to lobby for funding and research for rare forms of arthritis. Being on the cutting edge of medicine is scary sometimes, but she is a grateful guinea pig.