Co-Founder Madeleine Anderson has been involved with issues relating to
people with disabilities since 1967, the year that she lost her left leg in a motor vehicle
accident. However, it was not until 1976, when her competitive spirit emerged and
Madeleine began Alpine ski racing at age 29. New doors and friendships emerged,
culminating in a wealth of experiences, including medals, and a tremendous amount
of volunteering.

For over 30 years, Madeleine has been elected to and chaired many boards, both local
and national, produced a body of photographic works about athletes with disabilities;
traveled to local, national & international events as a competitor, photographer, volunteer
and part of mission staff.

Another chapter and what has been added to Madeleine's already full life is becoming a
co-founder of the End The Pain Project. With her energy, enthusiasm and optimism,
it will be the most far reaching and personally gratifying of all.

Co-Founder Moira Judith Mann brings twenty-five years of compassionate
involvement with refugee populations to the End The Pain Project. During her travels
to countries such as Bosnia, Laos and Vietnam as an independent documentary producer
and photographer, she encountered scores of persons who lost limbs due to landmines,
war and disease. These meetings set Moira on a life-misson to help end their suffering and
isolation, and now extends to all who suffer phantom limb pain.

A possible solution came in early Summer 2008, after reading Dr. Atun Gawande's The
Itch article on the development of Mirror Therapy by Dr. V. S. Ramachandran to to end
phantom limb pain and a further article on successful trials of Mirror Therapy by Dr. Jack
Tsao at Walter Reed Hospital.

This insight led to the founding of the End The Pain Project and development of an
ETPP ToolKit, available on this site to all persons experiencing phantom limb pain.

 

Director of Public Relations Mohamed Ehab volunteered with NGOs in
Cairo to renovate orphanages, mount charity medical caravans and environmental projects.
Volunteered with NGOs in Greece and England in environmental projects. Organizer of the
Vancouver International and Independent Cinema Group. Pharmacist since 1999, working in
sales and marketing with multinational pharmaceuticals and as a community pharmacist.

 

Advisory Board Member Beth Darnall, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the
Department of Anesthesiology & Perioperative Medicine at Oregon Health & Science University.
She is a pain researcher and clinical pain psychologist in the Comprehensive Pain Center at OHSU.
She has published on the topic of pain, depressive symptoms and mental health care utilization in
persons with limb loss (Darnall, et al, Arch Phys Med & Rehabil, 2005).

In 2009 she published the first report of successful use of home-based self-delivered mirror
treatment(Darnall, BD, Am J Phys Med & Rehabil, 2009).  Prior to her study the notion of mirror was
classically conceived as being therapist-guided and involving a specific protocol of exercises.  The total
resolution of her patient's phantom pain led Dr. Darnall to develop a clinical trial to test home-based
self-delivered mirror therapy more widely, and the preliminary findings are highly positive.  Her goal
is to help people around the world learn about mirror treatment as a cheap and easy way to self-treat
phantom pain at home without therapists, doctors or pills. Such treatment information is particularly
important for persons with limited resources in developing countries. Dr. Darnall's work is currently
funded by the NIH Office for Research on Women's Health (BIRCWH K12).

Further information about Dr. Darnall can be found at www.bethdarnall.com

Bosniac Representative Sabahudin Hadzialic, a freelance journalist and a
writer of poetry, drama, essays and satire short stories and aphorismes, with membership in
The Association of Writers in Bosnia & Herzegovina since 2003, has been involved in
humanitarian projects in Bosnia & Herzegovina from 1998 to date.

Field Operative Stephen Sumner found himself in the trauma unit of a central Italian
hospital with a leg gone above the knee and suffering phantom limb pain, due to a hit-and-run driver,
after an adrenaline-fueled life of ski racing, bicycle racing, logging and commercial salmon fishing.  

Rallying, he ultimately held motivational talks at the GF Strong Rehabilitation Clinic, Vancouver, where
he met the founders of End the Pain Project who demonstrated the incredibly simple technique called
Mirror Therapy, which can end excruciating phantom limb pain.

Now virtually pain-free, Stephen is committed to spreading the much-needed work of End the Pain Project
to embattled places on earth, where the by-products of what is called collateral damage -- amputees in pain,
can be found. Though the damage is done, these amputees don't have to live in agony for the rest of their
lives. Stephen knows first-hand that they don't.

In the 5+ years since his amputation, Stephen has lived and ridden all over the world; has written a memoir,
Phantom Pain, and has co-written a screenplay by the same name which has been released as a successful
Warner Brothers film. After its premiere and popular release in Germany, Switzerland and Austria, Stephen
was asked to partake in The Berlin Velothon, a popular bike race with over 15,000 entrants. His stand-out
performance inspired the race organizers to auction his bicycle with proceeds going to End the Pain Project.

Vietnam Field Operative Phu Nguyen Thanh is a freelance tour guide in Quang Tri Province,
which brings him time and again to the old battlefields of the DMZ (De-Militarized Zone). For more than three,
years he has witnessed the pain that is still being suffered by amputees who have stepped on landmines in the DMZ.
He is deeply motivated to help ease this pain by providing mirror therapy to amputee villagers who live in the zone.