Founded in 1997 by two 14-year CFIDS (Chronic Fatigue and Immune Dysfunction Syndrome) advocates, the goals of the Foundation are to help fund medical research to find a cause, expedite treatments and eventually a cure for this devastating disease. The NCF also strives to provide information, education, and support to those people who have CFIDS, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) and many other names.
The Foundation is funded solely by individual contributions and has no paid employees. We are an all-volunteer organization composed of patients and caregivers. Our operating expenses are kept at a minimum. All funds not used for basic expenses go directly to fund research. Every dollar generously donated to the National CFIDS Foundation brings us one step closer to understanding the cause and developing effective treatments for CFIDS/ME. Your donation makes a tremendous impact. By giving, you can make our goals become a reality.
The National CFIDS Foundation, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, and all donations are tax-deductible.
Gail R. and Bernard A. Kansky
Gail and Bernie Kansky are the founders of the National CFIDS Foundation, Inc., an all-volunteer, non-profit 501(c)(3) charity created in 1997 to determine the cause and to find a treatment for Chronic Fatigue and Immune Dysfunction Syndrome (CFIDS), and more accurately and medically referred to as Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME). The name Myalgic Encephalomyelitis was changed by the CDC to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) to deliberately trivialize it.
Gail, who has a mild case, was previously involved with a state group as of 1986 but was dissatisfied with the inertia of its controlling leadership and chose to break off with that group and form a nationwide charity to more aggressively pursue the cause and treatment of CFIDS, especially since their daughter was and is seriously disabled by this disease, the symptoms of which parallel many of the symptoms of long-Covid.
Gail is and has been President and Clerk of the charity while Bernie, an attorney by profession, is and has been its volunteer Treasurer since its inception.
Gail (maiden name: Epstein) was born and brought up in Bangor, Maine, attended Chapel Hill High School in Waltham, Massachusetts and was valedictorian of her class. She graduated from Lesley College, is also a published author on matters other than CFIDS, was an elementary school teacher, and has been the author of the charity’s newsletter for more than 25 years.
Bernie was born and brought up in Boston, Massachusetts, is a graduate of Boston Latin School, Boston University, Boston University School of Law, and obtained an LLM Master’s of Law, also from Boston University. Bernie has been a licensed attorney in Massachusetts for more than 59 years.
Alan Cocchetto
Alan Cocchetto serves as the Medical Director for the National CFIDS Foundation (NCF). He joined the NCF in 1997 and was elected to his current position by the Board of Directors in 2002 superseding Dr. Jay Goldstein. Under his tutelage, the Foundation formally established the NCF Research Grant Program which required the NCF to dramatically increase its fundraising efforts ($5 million to date). This enabled the NCF to “follow the science” by orchestrating its own cutting-edge, self-directed research program that has funded dozens of global scientists at various academic institutions in a coordinated effort to gain understanding into the complexities of this disease process. This led to the discovery of its own radiation-exposed patient cohort. As a result, this then allowed for the creation of a new fundamental disease model that is based on measured parameters that include radiation exposure (alpha-radiation ingestion or inhalation), chromosomal damage (translocations and genomic instability), ENOX2 protein generation (cancer) and an assortment of critical CFS patient biomarkers.
Alan earned electrical engineering degrees from Purdue University (BSEE) and Villanova University (MSEE). Upon graduation, he was a design engineer in research and development for several engineering companies. Later, he became an Associate Professor with SUNY@Alfred specializing in data-acquisition, instrumentation and control systems, as well as signal processing. He was the recipient of a National Science Foundation matching grant to establish a new engineering lab at the college. While at SUNY, he received several teaching awards at the local, state and national level.
In 1990, he became acutely ill and was hospitalized. This ultimately led to a week-long visit to the Cleveland Clinic where he had undergone extensive testing from numerous specialties. This resulted in his formal diagnosis of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Though he tried to hang on to his professorship, the demands as an academic along with this disease proved to be too much.
Alan subsequently joined the Rochester, New York CFS group and attended various state meetings. He then joined the NCF and the rest is history! Alan has been a featured patient speaker at several CFS conferences, has written hundreds of patient articles on CFS and has numerous peer-reviewed publications in medical journals.
