Our Mission

The Patrick Risha CTE Awareness Foundation is a non-profit volunteer based organization. It was created in Patrick’s memory to help prevent CTE in future athletes and military service members, to provide a resource for understanding the disease, how it is caused, and how to stop it.

CTE is an acronym for Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. It is progressive brain damage, which is caused by repeated blows to the head…

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What is CTE?

CTE, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, is a brain disease that is degenerative and progressive.

It occurs as a result of repetitive head impacts. CTE has been found in people with or without a history of concussions. Concussions may add to the likelihood of getting CTE, but the biggest factor seems to be the length of time exposed to sub concussive hits. CTE was originally only thought to exist with boxers but it was later discovered in victims of physical abuse, head banging and poorly controlled epilepsy. Now it is being associated with athletes playing contact sports including American football, ice hockey, soccer, wrestling, extreme sports, as well as veterans and military personnel with a history of being exposed to repetitive hits from training or blasting. One of the largest concerns is the growing discovery of CTE in high school and college athletes and tragically athletes who only played sports at the youth level.

Read more: What is CTE.