A Message from Chris Bath
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My name is Chris Bath. You may know me as a newsreader on Channel 7, but I’m also a Jeans for Genes® Ambassador, and, most importantly, I am a mum.
It’s as a mother that I’m asking for your help today so that the CMRI can find the answers to some difficult questions.
Kids always seem to have weird and wonderful questions. I usually get really curly ones about how the world works. My son, who is 9, loves animals, so many of his questions are about them – why do snakes shed their skin? How come birds can fly, but people can’t?
But sometimes children have more difficult questions, ones that, as an adult, you desperately want to be able to provide your child with an answer to, but can’t. Why are some children born sick? And others are not? Why do some get better? And some don’t?
These are the questions that researchers at the CMRI are working hard to find the answers to.
Meet Marcus
Marcus Dadd was diagnosed with the very rare genetic disease Waardenburg syndrome at just one and a half years old.
Marcus’ nerves do not communicate with his arms and legs as quickly as in healthy children. This stops the muscles and ligaments developing properly, and his legs and ankles have been weakened by the disease. Apart from getting tired very quickly because he has to work hard to get around, Marcus is also profoundly deaf and has intestinal problems as a result of his condition.
After nearly two years searching for the answers to what was wrong with their son, Marcus’ parents were actually relieved when they were told that his condition had a name, and that researchers were working on finding out more about it.
“There was a lot of guessing for us, trying one thing and then another and often just ending up coming home feeling baffled. I think you expect doctors to always have the answer, but when a situation gets complicated medicine can actually struggle if it hasn’t had the time to discover the cause of the problem.
So when genetics came into the picture we really felt that the light had been switched on. Although it didn’t fix anything it helped us understand clearly what the situation was. To know there are researchers there drilling away for years at a theory or hypothesis to find an answer that they can give to people like us so we can say okay, we know what it is, now we can move on: that gave us enormous peace of mind.
To me geneticists are the quiet achievers, and for us it is crucial to support an organisation like CMRI that is going to help stop children like Marcus from going through what he’s been through in the future.” Sharlene Dadd
Why are some kids born sick?
The Children’s Medical Research Institute (CMRI) is searching every day for answers to the many questions surrounding childhood genetic diseases and their causes. The use of genes as medicine to cure and prevent these diseases in the future is what CMRI aims to achieve with its long-term research projects. If we can figure out why serious illnesses affect some children and not others we will be able to ensure healthy and happy childhoods for them all.
Why do we need your help?
Most of the work CMRI does is based on long and involved research projects. Time, resources and skilled researchers are required to make advances in this very complex area of scientific research. Discoveries are being made all the time with the help of our supporters, who recognise the important work that needs to be done and the time it takes to do it. By enabling the projects to progress over time, research teams can concentrate on their work, knowing that they are supported for as long as it takes to achieve their goals.
Jeans for Genes and the Children’s Medical Research Institute.
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