Full Disclosure

[Guest guest]

Hello Fellow Chiarians

I want to put an end to a terrible rumor about me. I have been

accused of taking large payments from a Chiari association and its

web site that I run. I hope the moderators of this group will allow

me to make the following full disclosure.

My name is Ray D'Alonzo. I wrote the book, " Contents Under

Pressure " . All the royalties from the book are donated to Conquer

Chiari. To date, 1444 copies have been sold. $5,184 has gone to

Conquer Chiari. I have received no payment and the publisher keeps

the rest ($12,144) to print the book and pay employees.

I do not run any association. I have never accepted any payment from

an association. I was an invited speaker at the Chiari Research

Symposium that was held at the University of Illinois Chicago Campus

in June of 2007. I was offered an honorarium of $400 that I turned

down. My employer covered all of travel expenses. I filed the

standard no-conflict of interest statement with the University.

My only source of income is from my employer who is the Procter &

Gamble Company where I have worked for 31 years.

Since the royalties from my book are donated to Conquer Chiari, I

have done what I could to be reasonably assured that my donated money

is being used to support research. The Executive Director of Conquer

Chiari has assured me of this personally. Conquer Chiari is a non-

profit organization in compliance with government regulations. It

has a board of directors composed of very top notch professionals

including neurosurgeons. The board of directors run Conquer Chiari.

I know for a fact that Conquer Chiari has made several sizable

research grants from donated money. They have published this

information and I have personally met the academic investigtors who

have received these grants at the June symposium.

I also went out of my way by hundreds of miles to drive to the home

of the Executive Director of Conquer Chiari to have dinner with him

and his family. I wanted to see him in person. He has a wonderful

wife and 3 young children. They live in a modest home with no frills

and very basic and functional furniture. He is also a decompressed

Chiarian who went through quite the ordeal himself. From everything

I can see, he is the real deal.

The symposium that Conquer Chiari organized at the University of

Illinois was absolutely outstanding. It is all posted on the web -

every single presentation. The investigators who have received

research grants from Conquer Chiari are all top notch and have

already begun to publish some of their important findings. The

second symposium will also be held at the University of Illinois in

November of 2008. I understand that the second one may receive

significant funding from the National Institute of Health.

So that's it folks. I'm sorry I feel compelled to post this in this

forum but there are people out there who do not have their

information straight. Hopefully it is all a misunderstanding.

Ray