Our Mission
Our goal is to help millions of cluster headache patients access safe, effective pain relief treatments as soon as possible. Their pain cannot go unnoticed for one more day.
Effective treatments for cluster headache exist, from high-flow oxygen to novel compounds currently being studied in clinical trials. Yet most patients worldwide face enormous barriers to accessing them due to long diagnostic delays, lack of medical awareness, regulatory restrictions, and inadequate insurance coverage. Some of the most promising treatments (such as psychedelics of the indoleamine family) remain illegal in most countries, forcing patients to break the law to treat their pain.
We have a strong conviction that no one should ever have to experience a severe cluster headache attack. As such, our core metric is the number of Days Lived in Extreme Suffering (DLES) that we can help avert. Every severe cluster headache attack that we can prevent represents a meaningful reduction in some of the most intense suffering an individual can experience.
Our Work
To achieve our mission, we:
- Publish high-quality treatment information for patients, including multilingual diagnostic and treatment guides (coming soon).
- Advocate for expanded access programs, working to include cluster headache in Right to Try and Compassionate Use programs in various jurisdictions.
- Support research and clinical trials, helping researchers with patient recruitment, funding, and raising awareness of promising but overlooked treatments.
- Publish open letters demanding that governments, regulatory bodies, and medical associations take action to improve treatment access.
- Engage with policymakers globally to advocate for better recognition of cluster headache.
- Collaborate with researchers, entrepreneurs, and philanthropists motivated to bring effective treatments to market.
While our current focus is on expanding access to compounds of the indoleamine family (given their efficacy and low risk profile), we encourage and support any efforts to make effective and safe treatments available to patients, whatever those treatments may be.
Organizations
ClusterFree is a non-profit company based in London, UK. It was incubated in 2025 by the Qualia Research Institute.
We also collaborate closely with Clusterbusters and the Organisation for the Prevention of Intense Suffering, who have been at the forefront of cluster headache advocacy for years.
Team
Dr. Alfredo Parra
Co-Founder & Director
Andrés Gómez Emilsson
Co-Founder & Member of Advisory Board
Bob Wold
Member of Advisory Board
Dr. Jonathan Leighton
Member of Advisory Board
Contributors
Jordan Clist
Web Development
Anna Fuchs
Communications & Media
Roberto Goizueta
Strategy & Fundraising
Nicolas Macé
Research
Clotilde de Maricourt
Project Management
Peter Skov-Andersen
Research
Jacob Woessner
Research
Our Partners
A global network of organizations supports ClusterFree's mission. Get in touch to list your organization as a partner and show your solidarity.
Donate
ClusterFree is ready to scale our impact, and we can absorb additional funding to execute our roadmap. Get in touch if you would like to learn more about our plans.
You can donate via card, bank transfer, PayPal, Google Pay, crypto, stocks, DAF, or Venmo. Donations are tax-deductible in the US.
We also strongly recommend donating to Clusterbusters. For over 25 years, Clusterbusters have been the driving force behind psychedelic treatments for cluster headache, turning anecdotal patient reports into peer-reviewed medical research. They have directly helped thousands of cluster headache patients worldwide, and their website is the most comprehensive resource for cluster headache patients seeking information about existing and emerging treatments.
Additionally, consider supporting the Organisation for the Prevention of Intense Suffering. Beyond publishing academic and policy papers, their advocacy work resulted in Health Canada granting a cluster headache patient legal access to psilocybin for the first time in 2024. You can learn more about their work here.
Every day of delay means more patients suffer in silence. Your donations can change that. Thank you for your support!
Get Involved
Patients, medical experts, policymakers, and anyone motivated to help can make a difference. Contact us discuss how you can get involved.