Bedford, VA August 7th, 2017:
For the last year and a half, the race shop at Pinion Racing has been silent. In 2016 After running a limited schedule of PASS South races over the last 8 years, the Virginia based team would not compete on track in any series for the first time since its creation in 1993. “When we got the news of Masons diagnosis racing just wasn’t a priority anymore.” In January of last year Driver Tim Pinion’s son Mason, was diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder called Fanconi Anemia. “After the initial shock of the news we started digging into what FA was and most of the information we were finding online left us pretty broken. It wasn’t until we found the Fanconi Anemia Research Fund that we started to realize that there was some hope for Mason’s future.
What is Fanconi Anemia
FA is an inherited DNA repair disorder that can lead to Bone marrow failure, leukemia and solid tumors. It can affect all systems of the body and is a complex, chronic disease that is psychologically demanding. Its also a cancer-prone disease. The likelihood of a child being born with FA, is about 1 in 131,000 in the U.S., with approximately 31 babies born with FA each year. Decades ago, children rarely survived to adulthood. Now, there are adults with FA that live into their 30s and beyond.
What is the Fanconi Anemia Research Fund?
Lynn and Dave Frohnmayer started the Fanconi Anemia Research Fund, Inc. (FARF), in 1989, to find effective treatments and a cure for Fanconi anemia and to provide education and support services to affected families worldwide. Support includes: medical resource information, education, publications, online support groups, annual family meetings, and meetings for adults with FA.
Since that time FARF has awarded over $20 million to fund more than 220 research grants. FARF-supported research has made significant improvements in the bone-marrow transplant survival rates of people with FA. Also research funded by FARF has helped to uncover important information about cancers that affect both people with and without FA.
Due to the extremely rare nature of FA it is considered an Orphan disease, because of this FA Research funding from the Federal Government is nonexistent. More than 95% of the Fanconi Anemia Research Fund’s annual budget comes from family fundraisers. 71% of the Donations to FARF goes directly toward grants for FA Research.
Mason Buddy
From the outside looking in, Mason appears to be a normal 7 year old little boy. He loves dinosaurs, Minecraft, Super Mario, and Pokémon. He enjoys riding his bike and kettle car and also playing t-ball and soccer for our local REC sports league. Mason however is on the verge of being in bone marrow failure. His blood counts are continuing to drop and the cellularity of his marrow is decreasing at a rapid pace. The local doctors in Roanoke work closely with his bone marrow transplant team in Cincinnati and monitor Mason’s blood levels every three months as well as an annual visit that includes a bone marrow biopsy and multiple other test to check the function of all his major organs.
Getting back on track.
Since the beginning of the year Tim started getting a consistent question from Mason and his sister Miley. Are we ever going to get to see you race?. “I guess seeing old trophies and photos around the house kind of spurred it on.” The team started working on plans to get the #42 Dodge back on track in April. “When we finally got to the point where we felt like we could get the race team back up and running for our first race back it was a no brainer to team up with FARF and use the race car as a medium to help get the word out about FA. They’ve been such a huge help in keeping us sane over the last year and If there’s anything I’ve learned in my last 25 years of racing, when the racing community gets behind a cause amazing things happen”
The Pinion Racing Fanconi Anemia Research Fund Dodge Charger will be back in Action Saturday August 12th at South Boston Speedway for the PASS South 150.
For more information on FA and how you can help visit www.fanconi.org.
You can follow Mason’s journey at
http://www.faccebook.com/Mason-Buddy-Fighting-Fanconi-Anemia-1090350420998889/
You can follow along with Tim Pinion and Pinion Racing on twitter via @TPINION42
