There are currently 30 million people in the U.S. with rare diseases, and a Louisiana activist is doing her part to increase awareness.Catherine Calhoun, Louisiana activist, was one of the 10 winners of Change.org’s second-annual Ideas for Change competition announced on Monday.Change.org, a national Web site for advocates for social change, started the Ideas for Change competition to support President Barack Obama’s election.Maria Tchijov, Change.org’s outreach director, said the competition was open to everyone, and the 10 winners were chosen by the general public.”The winners will have their ideas featured on our blog, and our team will be presenting them to relevant members of the Obama administration,” she said.The team will help the winners launch a national grassroots campaign to advance their ideas, Tchijov said.”We hope to get their ideas on the forefront of discussion,” she said.Calhoun’s idea focuses on the gathering of available resources on rare diseases to increase knowledge and encourage medical advancements.”A registry of registries for rare diseases is the first small step on the path to saving and improving millions and millions of lives,” Calhoun said.There are 7,000 known rare diseases — those impacting fewer than 200,000 people — and Calhoun said fewer than 300 of them currently have pharmaceutical treatments.”We need bigger awareness and community involvement,” Calhoun said. “If we had a huge place where all the information on rare diseases could be stored, we could make tons of progress and even cure some of them.” Calhoun quit her job as a lawyer three years ago when she found out her 7-year-old son had McCune-Albright Syndrome, a rare genetic disease that affects the bones and skin pigmentation.Calhoun said she’s been working since then for various health organizations to advocate rare-disease awareness.”There is very little known about a lot of these diseases,” she said. “A lot of times we’re just guessing, which is less than ideal.”Calhoun’s idea involves forming a “Biobank,” where rare tissue samples can be stored, and creating a database of all available information, including case studies donated anonymously by patients with rare diseases.”My son is my inspiration,” Calhoun said. “And this competition gives me hope that this community can come together and make this idea into a reality.”—–Contact Sarah Eddington at [email protected]