Almost 7 years ago, Sanath Kumar Ramesh found out his son had an ultra-rare mutation. GPX4

This began a journey that would force him to grow into a man he never imagined. Part of his journey was this podcast, Raising Rare. Now, after completing our sixth season, Sanath is going to step back from this microphone.

In this episode, we reflect on our beginnings, our favorite conversations, and the deep connections that we have developed with each other and our co-host Brittany Ratke.

And with that... we close Season 6.

How do you tell whether a zebra is male or female?

The male doesn’t’ talk about their #raredisease.

This can be hard on them. There have been very few places for them to gather to take care of their #mentalhealth. David Hogan set out to change this when the COVID pandemic threatened to isolate us all even more. David is affected by Cowden’s syndrome, and his mother had the condition as well. When she died, he felt the full weight of rare disease on his own mental wellbeing.

He noticed that there were many places for women to gather, but it was not a great place for men to show their vulnerabilities. We needed something different.

David took action and started inviting men in the rare disease community into conversation. Those conversations have now become the Men’s Rare Wellness Forum, a monthly opportunity for the male zebras to take care of themselves and each other. All men in the rare community – patients, Dads, brothers, caregivers, and providers – are invited.

You can learn more about the Men’s Rare Wellness Forum by reaching out to David at mensrarediseasemh@gmail.com or searching “@mensrarediseasemh” on Instagram or David Hogan on LinkedIn

Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) is not considered a rare disease according to the numbers. The T1D community is quite large and includes people of all ages, races, geography, and conditions. Many of our guests use the technology developed for T1D patients. Suzanne Hansen has become part of Brittany’s inner circle of T1D experts. We talk a lot about the tech, but the real story is the power of connecting with others who get what you are going through.

Everleigh was the answer to Brittany and Chris’s dreams, their sunshine and rainbow baby after years of trying to become parents. Clouds started forming before Everleigh was even born.

Recently, Sanath put out a request to ask him anything with the promise we would answer as many as we could on our show. It was a bit scary, not knowing what we might have signed up for. But a commitment is a commitment.

If you like the “Ask Me Anything” format, watch for future requests for questions.