(L-R: Hope Rising Benefit Co-Chair David Zaslav, AFTD CEO Susan L-J Dickinson, AFTD Board member Kristin Holloway, Emma Heming Willis, AFTD Board members Donald E. Newhouse and Rita B. Choula, Hope Rising Benefit Co-Chair Anna Wintour, AFTD Board member Kathy Mele)

More than 400 supporters joined together at AFTD’s seventh annual Hope Rising Benefit in New York City on Tuesday. This year’s charity gala – chaired by Donald Newhouse and co-chaired by Anna Wintour and David Zaslav – raised more than $1.8 million in support of AFTD’s critical work to support people affected by FTD, the most common form of dementia for people under 60, and drive research to a cure.

The benefit honored and celebrated the power of FTD stories. AFTD CEO Susan L-J Dickinson told attendees: “It isn’t the fact that someone faces FTD that defines their story. We share these stories because they can bring hope. We share these stories because they reflect the resilience of people and families fighting through horrific lived experiences to connect, inform, and help others around them.”

The event honored advocate, philanthropist, and AFTD Board member Kristin Holloway with the Susan Newhouse & Si Newhouse Award of Hope. In April 2017, Kristin’s husband Lee Holloway, a gifted technology pioneer who co-founded the web security and performance company Cloudflare, was diagnosed with behavioral variant FTD.

Fellow AFTD Board member and AARP Senior Director of Caregiving Rita B. Choula delivered the night’s keynote speech. Choula recounted losing her mother to FTD in 2020. In remarks that left the crowd deeply moved, Choula recalled how difficult it was to diagnose her mother’s condition and the challenges that followed as she and the family sought to provide care that honored her mother’s needs as an individual.

The benefit marked one of Emma Heming Willis’s first public appearances since the family announced in February 2023 that her husband, the beloved retired actor Bruce Willis, was diagnosed with FTD.

“Thank you for welcoming me, AFTD, to my new home. It’s not the room I ever dreamed of being in, but let me tell you, it’s a room of fierce love and resilience,” Willis wrote in an Instagram post following the event. “I’m here to join the cause alongside all of you.”

Click here to read an AFTD press release about the event.