Taylor Porter Marketing Director Tommy Santora, who serves as president of the New Orleans Myasthenia Gravis Resource Group and communications committee chair of the national Myasthenia Gravis Foundation of America, received the national “Top Fundraising Sponsorship” award from the New York-based MGFA at the organization’s annual conference in Raleigh, North Carolina, May 1-3. For the last five years, Santora has led the New Orleans MG Walk in its fundraising efforts of close to $200,000 to raise awareness of and research funds to find a cure for the neuromuscular disease, Myasthenia Gravis.

In 2015, the New Orleans MG Walk, taking place at Lafreniere Park in Metairie with close to 400 participants, raised more than $30,000, including $15,000 from more than 20 corporate sponsors, ranking the Walk among the highest of the 35 cities nationwide in terms of corporate sponsorships. Santora, a 37-year-old who was diagnosed with MG at the age of 12, founded the New Orleans Myasthenia Gravis Resource Group in June 2011, offering a wide variety of patient-oriented services, including support groups, that consist of public and medical professional education forums, as well as supplying information on local resources to help patients with Myasthenia Gravis. 

The MGFA is the only national volunteer health agency in the United States dedicated solely to the fight against myasthenia gravis, which means grave muscular weakness and the most common form of MG is a chronic autoimmune neuromuscular disorder that is characterized by fluctuating weakness of the voluntary muscle groups.