Kim and Dan Heins first met in Sunday School at a small Baptist church in Louisville, Kentucky. They fell head over heels in love with each other and married there 18 months later. They raised two wonderful children who provided them with four precious grandchildren, two of which were born before Kim’s passing in 2016.

Kim and Dan loved to travel, especially to the beach or aboard a cruise ship.

They took three cruises during her seven-year battle with PSP (Caribbean, Panama Canal and Hawaii).

Kim was very artistic and decided to become a hairstylist after the kids entered high school. She loved doing “good hair” and all of our friends and family would come to her for a “Kimber Cut.” Kim had the most beautiful blue eyes, but unfortunately one of them would often be closed as she progressed with PSP.

Kim always looked to volunteer, either as a Girl Scout leader, at our church or with our local Parkinson’s Support Center in Louisville. Since there were no active support group meetings for the atypical parkinsonism patients and their families, Kim and Dan formed one at the Center.

Kim co-led these groups with Dan up until her passing. Dan continues to lead these support group meetings, now remotely from the Florida panhandle for those in Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Alabama, Georgia and Florida.

Kim was always ready to try new things and when there was an opportunity to participate in a clinical drug trial for PSP she was ready to sign up. Unfortunately, the drug trial in which she was a participant was determined to be unsuccessful. However, an enormous amount of research data was gained from that trial for future clinical trials.

Kim and Dan were happily married for 35 years.  On their 35th anniversary they returned to that little Baptist church where they were married, but this time Dan pushed Kim down the aisle in a wheelchair.

Kim gently passed away one month later on July 9, 2016 from aspiration pneumonia.

By supporting the Kim Heins Legacy Fund, you will be sponsoring the latest CurePSP targeted funding program for startups and established biotech dedicated to developing therapies and diagnostics for PSP (with the possibility of expanding to MSA in subsequent years). Along with funding, the program will offer critical resources and support to incentivize companies to remain focused on tackling these fast-progressing neurodegenerative disorders, such as patient input and meetings with key opinion leaders (KOLs). This program is specifically designed to meet the needs of promising early-stage companies, with the goal of accelerating the development of new treatments and diagnostics, fostering innovation and providing a path to de-risk important steps in the drug development process. Additionally, the program may encourage companies with a focus on neuroinflammation, neuroprotection, Alzheimer's or Parkinson's to test their drugs and strategies in PSP (or MSA).

No matter her condition, Kim remained passionate about finding a cure for PSP and this program brings us closer to that reality. She would have loved to see her legacy fund dedicated to helping other patients gain access to therapies, and this program comes at a crucial time in which investors are accelerating their contributions but cannot forget about atypical parkinsonisms. Many neuroscience companies are not specifically considering PSP as a target for their drugs or resources, as there are no objective biomarkers, limited understanding of our patient population and significant risk in identifying patients for clinical trials. This new grant and activity aims to address these uncertainties by aligning more businesses with the CurePSP mission, and in turn supporting patients like Kim who need therapies today.