Wayne Brown

Wayne N. Brown Alone in My Universe: Struggling with an Orphan Disease in an Unsympathetic World.

Life is wrought with endless challenges for most of us, but in 2004, Wayne Brown was diagnosed with a tumor in his pituitary gland right by his brain. If that wasn't upsetting enough, Wayne had lost his father to brain cancer a mere decade before. As if that still wasn't enough, the disease was so rare that he had never heard of the disease he was just diagnosed with; and would not meet anyone like him for another five years.

Since 2004, Wayne Brown took his loneliness and despair, and used it to grow one of the world's leading advocacy groups for patients dealing with Acromegaly, a rare pituitary disorder that affects only about 20,000 in the United States. Acromegaly Community started out as a MySpace group, which migrated over to Facebook as its popularity grew. Now, with a freestanding website, AcromegalyCommunity.com, Wayne has helped to develop a global network of support for people battling confusion and loneliness that is associated with this rare disease.

In Wayne's career as a patient advocate, he has developed relationships with the biggest names in endocrinology and neurosurgery, he has worked with every major pharmaceutical company that produces drugs associated with Acromegaly, and has directly offered support and intervention services for patients in Africa, Asia, Europe, Australia, and all throughout North America.

Wayne has consulted with countless medical professionals on everything from patient needs to product packaging and patient pharmaceutical support. He has been published in the Buffalo News, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal, and has been a feature of various media outlets, including NewYorkTimes.com, ESPN Magazine, and CBS Radio in Los Angeles.

Most recently, Wayne was a guest speaker at Stanford University's Endocrine Education Day, at the request of their Director of Endocrinology