I don't know why anyone would donate to some stranger's vacation. If anything worthwhile comes out of the meeting, it will be reported in journals and media anyway.
This is wrong on so many levels that I can't list all the reasons but I will list some of the reasons.
1. Is it a certainty that the media will report all of the details that we would all want to know about? I don't think so.
2. Hellouser is very informed about hair loss and the treatments, and he could pick up on nuances that the media reporters might not pick up on.
3. Since Hellouser is a patient collecting information for other patients the researchers might feel some empathy for him (since he's one of the people they're trying to cure) and open up a little more than they would for a media reporter.
4. Hellouser is very informed and he will get answers to every possible question we would want answered. Media reporters won't even know every last question we would want answered about all of the different projects at the HLC.
5. Hellouser will get detailed updated info to us shortly after the congress rather than us having to wait for new studies to be published.
6. I don't think of it as a real vacation. I wouldn't want to do what Hellouser's doing. Will he have some time to check out the local sights? Sure, but it will also be a lot of work. A lot of the time he's going to be rushed, loaded down with equipment, tired from the traveling, gathering information, meeting schedules, doing some interviews, and putting a lot of effort into organizing all of the information for the rest of us to review. He's also putting some of his own money into the project and he's using up his vacation leave at work to do this.
7. We will be getting the best and most up-to-date information about the issue we are all concerned about and we're getting this information for very little money investment by each of us.
8. And of course you'll review the information Hellouser brings back. You just won't contribute is all. You'll even be happy to have the information that Hellouser brings back. You just won't chip in is all.