(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 on March 14 at AFTD’s seventh annual Hope Rising Benefit in New York City, raising more than $1.8 million in support of our work to support those affected by FTD and drive research to a cure.

The benefit honored and celebrated the power of FTD stories. “It isn’t the fact that someone faces FTD that defines their story — we share these stories because they can bring hope,” AFTD CEO Susan L-J Dickinson told attendees. “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.

At the benefit, Holloway spoke honestly about the difficulty of maintaining hope despite the challenges of FTD. “This disease brings hopelessness, a darkness so vast it can be very, very hard, if not impossible, to navigate,” she said. “It can be hard to feel anything but grief, anger, despair and, well, hopelessness…[But] as challenging and confounding as the darkness of this journey can be today, seeing all of you in this room gives me a certainty that we will bring an end to this disease.”

Fellow AFTD Board member and AARP Senior Director of Caregiving Rita B. Choula delivered the night’s keynote speech, in which she recounted losing her mother to FTD in 2020. Choula drew attention to the difficulty FTD caregivers often face in talking about their journeys, as well as the profound economic challenges they may experience as they navigate supporting a loved one.

“Family caregivers from all backgrounds find it difficult to talk about their own emotional stress associated with the role,” she said. “It is so difficult for many of them to admit the often overwhelming costs that come with providing care.”

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

“Thank you for welcoming me, AFTD, to my new home,” Willis wrote in an Instagram post following the event. “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. I’m here to join the cause alongside all of you.”

All of Hope Rising’s proceeds went directly to support AFTD’s mission. Leading supporters of the event included Bank of America, Judy and Leonard Lauder, and Warner Bros. Discovery.