This month's quote is by Benjamin Franklin: "An investment in knowledge pays the best interest." The BTER Foundation has been investing in knowledge for over 14 years. Here are some examples:

1) Through basic and applied research, the BTER Foundation has expanded our understanding of biotherapy - what it can do, and how it works.

2) Through its courses, workshops, webinars, and publications, the BTER Foundation educates clinicians about how and when to use biotherapy.

3) Through its website, public campaigns, and the service of countless volunteers answering phone calls and e-mails, the BTER Foundation is working hard to educate the general public regarding biotherapy treatment options.

Two of our founding members were passionate about education and about sharing biotherapy with the world: Pamela Mitchell and Randall Sullivan. Pam Mitchell passed away 5 years ago, this month, from complications of diabetes.
  She had nearly lost her legs 12 years earlier, but convinced her doctors to try maggot therapy before proceeding to amputation. In the process, she not only healed her wounds and saved her legs, but she also educated her physicians about what maggot therapy could do for a "non-salvageable wound." Through the BTER Foundation, Pam went on to share her story with all who would listen, and accompanied scores of patients through the process of educating themselves and their doctors about maggot therapy. Ms. Mitchell even wrote a book about her experiences (" Maggots, Miracles and Me ."). Pam was an exemplary patient advocate and educator, and dedicated her remaining years to those efforts. For that reason, the BTER Foundation created the Pam Mitchell Memorial Patient Assistance Fund, whose goal is to ensure adequate financial resources for patients to receive biotherapy (through The BTER Foundation's Patient Assistance Grants), even if they have no insurance, or if their insurance does not cover the appropriate biotherapy treatments.     Randy Sullivan was a nurse and wound care educator long before she helped create the BTER Foundation. As a board member, she developed many of the programs and resources that we still use today in our training sessions. After her passing in 2014, the Randall Sullivan Biotherapist Education Fund was established to help fund, for years to come, the training programs that she helped to create.

If you have attended any of our free courses or if you received treatment from some of our former trainees, please consider a small investment in our educational programs. Pam Mitchell and Randy Sullivan - and maybe even Benjamin Franklin - would be most grateful. As always, you can specify which fund and how you want your donations to be used.

With best wishes, respect, and gratitude,