We're still a little speechless. In just a few weeks, Ryan Searle gave ADOA a global platform at the PDC World Darts Championship – for himself, his daughter, and everyone living with this rare eye condition.
By sharing his story with Arjan van der Giessen from Viaplay, thousands of viewers were introduced to Autosomal Dominant Optic Atrophy (ADOA) for the very first time.
Thanks to Ryan, Arjan and Viaplay:
- More than 1.000 darts fans donated over €20.000 to the Cure ADOA Foundation
- Harrows supported the campaign with a donation of £15.000
- Paddy Power (the tournament's main sponsor) donated €15.000
- During the semi-final, Paddy Power blurred out its logo and advertising hoardings to give viewers a glimpse of Ryan's blurred vision
The impact reached far beyond Ally Pally. Ryan and ADOA's story was picked up by AD, BBC, NU.nl, Sky Sports, and ESPN, among others, and led to dozens of articles in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Poland, and beyond. Our chair, Hedy Smit, was even invited to BBC Radio 5 Live, where she shared the patient perspective and our mission with a new audience.
For our small patient organization, this has meant a huge growth in web and social reach, thousands of new posts from around the world, donations for research on our journey to treatment—and perhaps most importantly, new ADOA families who have found our community.
To everyone who made this possible:
- Ryan and his family, for your courage, openness and unstoppable darts
- Arjan and Viaplay, for giving ADOA a platform through your channels
- Harrows, for supporting Ryan and our foundation
- Paddy Power, for the generous donation and the creative statement with the faded logo
- And of course, every darts fan who donated, shared, commented or simply took the time to learn what ADOA is
Thank you for transforming a rare, mostly invisible condition into a global story.
