How the Rotary Helped Save My Life and Continues to Save Lives Through the WeHeal Foundation
Eric Drew is a former Los Gatos High School football quarterback, runway model, and VP of several Silicon Valley global firms. His miraculous survival from a “terminal” leukemia, after every medical center in the US said nothing could be done, has brought hope to millions, and inspired new groundbreaking medical technologies and treatments.
Diagnosed in his prime at age 35 with only days to live without emergency treatment, Eric’s charmed life as he knew it was over in an instant. After two years of excruciating chemo and radiation treatments at several major hospitals, including two failed bone marrow transplants, Eric was exhausted and out of options. He refused to accept his terminal prognosis, and through diligent self-advocacy and networking with doctors in Europe and Asia, he finally found the one treatment that could save him. It was an experimental stem cell transplant using the umbilical cords of newborn babies. A global search located matching stem cells, which had been frozen for eight years in a small cryo-bank in Milan Italy, and Eric was cured with the blood from this little baby girl.
Eric is now an internationally recognized keynote speaker, writer, spokesperson, and consumer and medical advocate. He is the longest serving board member for the Los Gatos Monte Sereno Police Foundation, and is serving his 17th year as Chairman of The WeHeal Foundation. He is also the VP of Business Development and Patient Advocacy at Aloha Health Network, a new technology company using AI to match patients to optimal clinical trials.
Eric has been featured on the cover of MSN.com and in most major news publications throughout the US and Europe including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today and Discover Magazine. He was published in Huffington Post and has appeared in countless TV and Radio shows including “CNN Morning Show”, “Dateline NBC”, “NPR Market Report”, “Montel Williams”, “Geraldo”, and many more. He has done over 200 keynote presentations at medical centers, academic institutions, and conferences around the world, inspiring and educating a broad range of audiences. Recently, he did the keynote TED talk at the first TEDx event hosted at Netflix headquarters.
Eric is also known for his triumphant battle against identity theft while he was fighting for his life in the Seattle hospital. When his complaints to the FBI, Seattle Police, and hospital management went unanswered, Eric refused to be a victim. After weeks of investigating and building evidence while on life support, Eric identified the hospital worker identity thief and forced the first federal conviction under the Federal HIPAA patient privacy laws. He then battled nine of the largest in federal court for eight years, triumphantly setting new legal precedents for consumer privacy protection.