Joshua’s Future of Promises is holding our 15th annual Bingo for a Cure fundraising event on March 19, 2023 at the Agri-Plex on the Allentown Fairgrounds.

Joshua’s Future of Promises was set up to provide funding for research and medical expenses for those with Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva (FOP), one of the rarest, most disabling genetic conditions known to medicine. FOP causes bone to form in muscles, tendons, ligaments and other connective tissues and there are no other known examples in medicine of one organ system turning into another.

FOP affects 1 in 2 million people, and currently there are only 800 known cases worldwide. Joshua Scoble, who Joshua’s Future of Promises was formed for, is 16 years old and lives in Emmaus, PA. Joshua was diagnosed with FOP at three months old and since then his shoulders and neck are fused and he relies on a wheelchair to get around.

Bingo for a Cure has raised over a million dollars that has been donated to FOP research. The money raised has significantly helped medical research locate the gene mutation that causes FOP and clinical trials for treatments. Joshua has participated in a few of those clinical trials, but nothing has proven helpful yet. We continue our fundraising efforts in hope that one day a treatment, hopefully a cure, for FOP will be discovered and the known 800 FOPers can live a "normal" life without fear of bone flare ups and bone growth. FOP is very rare and the only known medical condition where one organ system changes into another. An FOP skeleton is on display at The Mutter Museum.