Thank you for visiting our Family/Team Fundraising Page. We are participating in the 7th Annual AVM Walk to show our support and in honor of Marc as he truly kicked his AVMs ass early this year. We are so proud of him and incredibly grateful for all the support and love we've received.

So what is an AVM anyway you might ask?An Arterio-Venous Malformation, or AVM, is an abnormal collection of capillaries in the brain. An AVM can be thought of as a "Short Circuit" where the blood does not go to the tissues, but is pumped back to the heart without ever giving nutrients to the tissues. What causes AVMs is not known. An estimated 3 million people in the United States are born with vascular malformation. Ok, now that you have the facts, we'll get on with our story..

Marc woke up at 1:30 am on Sept 28 with a searing headache. He proceeded to get sick and started slurring his words. I recognized he was having a stroke and contacted 911. He was taken to UCSF hospital in San Francisco and diagnosed with an AVM that had burst. Marc never knew he had an AVM. They think he was born with it. He walked around for 40 years never knowing he had a time bomb ticking inside his brain.

When the AVM burst it caused the stroke. The AVM was located in a "quiet part" of marc's brain that was accessible (rated a 1 on a scale of 1-5) and he was fortunate enough to have the top neurosurgeon in the country perform his brain surgery two days later. Because his AVM was accessible, they were able to fully remove it and the resulting  large hemorrhage and expect him to make a full recovery within a year or so. That being said his new "normal" will be a different "normal" than on Sept 27, 2011.

We are forever grateful for the perfect storm of events that enabled Marc's survivial, from Kim's knowledge of strokes and ability to act fast, to the incredible doctors and nurses that worked to diagnose and treat Marc in those first crucial hours and in the 6 days in the neuro ICU that followed. WIthin 8 hours his parents had flown in from Chicago and his sister and brother-in-law were at the hospital every day supporting him. Friends near and far chipped in to help Kim keep Marc's business going and helped us move only 2 weeks after Marc returned home so we could be in a better place for his continued recovery.

Please help us raise much needed funds for the AVM foundation to continue their research and provide support for survivors and put an end to AVMs for good.

Donating through this site is simple, fast and totally secure. It is also the most efficient way to make a contribution to our fundraising efforts.

Many thanks for your support -- and don't forget to forward this to anyone who you think might want to donate too!

Lots of love and let's kick some AVM ass together!
The Stiggys - Kim, Marc & Poppy