Tax-deductible donations at #Hope4KB Research Fund
Tag Archives: Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
The Pennsylvania Gazette #Hope4KB Cover Story
A special thank you to The Pennsylvania Gazette for the feature cover story about how our family’s journey through the realm of rare disease led us to the newest frontier of precision genetic medicine at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
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#GivingTuesday
Today, Tuesday, November 28, 2017, is #GivingTuesday, a global day of giving fueled by the power of social media and collaboration. Celebrated on the Tuesday following Thanksgiving (in the U.S.) and the widely recognized shopping events Black Friday and Cyber Monday, #GivingTuesday kicks off the charitable season, when many focus on their holiday and end-of-year giving.
We need your support
We want to take a moment to give you an update on Katherine Belle.
You can see from the photos that she’s happy and growing. She’s loving first grade and changing so fast (as is typical at this age). Although she did not have a third MRI, her latest round of testing this fall was mostly “normal,” which is what every parent wants to hear. The only thing that was slightly abnormal was a mild curvature of her spine (neuromuscular scoliosis) – something that is common with disorders of the brain. At this time, all organs other than her brain remain unaffected. This is indeed a blessing.
She continues on the clinical trial drug EPI-743 and her “Mito Cocktail,” both of which have been very helpful for her. She is growing stronger and walking more and more. She is mostly walking upright around our house – still holding on to surfaces the majority of the time, but taking more independent steps in between. It’s amazing to watch this process as her brain rewires itself, opens new pathways, and creates muscle memory. At this point, we can see how the repetition is building on itself and beginning to accelerate.
This experience is hard in many ways because nobody wants to watch their child struggle, but at the same time it’s mind-blowing to watch the process of how the human brain has the ability to reorganize itself when pushed by a resilient human spirit. It’s incredible. Again, this is a blessing.
We don’t want her to fight this alone. We know enough about this disease to know that even the toughest fighters cannot beat a failing human body. She needs our help.
When we first started on this rare disease journey, I recall feeling like we were stuck in the past, medically speaking. Nobody knew what was wrong with our child, let alone how to treat her. Science was on our side for getting a fairly quick diagnosis through whole exome sequencing. We continue to exhaust all possible avenues to help her as quickly as possible, from a clinical trial, to vitamins and supplements, best therapies, educational environment, and now research.
On the days when the fight seems too hard and the fundraising has slowed to a halt, the sound of a ticking clock fills our heads. This part is the hardest of all for us as her parents – wanting to do everything we can to help our daughter while being constrained by a short timeframe to stop the disease progression. It’s easy to look at a smiling, happy, healthy looking photograph of a vibrant six-year old and not think about her future. As her parents, though, it’s all we think about.
Timing is critical. Science was on our side for getting a NUBPL diagnosis; now we hope we can push science to discover a treatment she needs NOW to increase her odds of not regressing cognitively and physically. It’s been 55 years since this first patient was diagnosed with mitochondrial disease and there’s still no FDA approved treatment to help patients like Katherine. We say the time is now and we will do everything in our power to advance the needle of research.
It’s like knowing in advance that your child is going to die in a car crash and having the opportunity to stop them from getting in the car that day. Just as we watch Katherine slowly rewire her brain to overcome her physical obstacles, she inspires us to keep pushing for a treatment that will hopefully come sooner rather than later.
There’s an upcoming article coming out soon that will go more in-depth about the research we’re funding, but we want to tell you a little here today. Researchers at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia are using cutting-edge Crispr technology to study zebrafish with Katherine’s NUBPL mutations to learn about the natural history of the disease and test currently available therapies.
Donations made today on #GivingTuesday will help us fund this critical research.
There are two places you can make a donation today to support the NUBPL Foundation:
1) Facebook
2) Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (Hope for Katherine Belle Mitochondrial Disease Research Fund)
Also, please consider voting for Katherine’s #GivingStory here. Entries with the most votes are eligible to win up to $10,000.
Thank you very much for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Dave & Glenda
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2017 Bi-Annual Report
For the past few years we have given an annual update in December, but so much has happened in the last few months that we want to share with you today.
Many of you have been on this journey with us since the very beginning when we started this blog in January 2014 after learning that Katherine had a rare disease that affected her cerebellum. In those early days, this blog was an outlet for our immense grief after being told by two doctors that our daughter had a quickly fatal disease.
It is soul-crushing.
Slowly, we made our way to research, awareness, advocacy, and thankfully, in February 2015, an accurate diagnosis of Mitochondrial Complex 1 Deficiency (NUBPL gene).
The only word we’ve found that best describes the last four years is journey. On this journey, we have learned that adaptability to change is key to moving forward. I am proud of what we’ve learned and accomplished amidst very difficult circumstances. I am also thankful for each of you who’ve followed along and continue to cheer for our daughter while lifting us up on our darkest days. You are an integral part of our story.
From the beginning, we knew that we needed to be Katherine’s voice in order to give her hope for the future. Isn’t that what we all want for our children? Sometimes that means something more or different depending on the circumstances. In our case, the task at hand – our greatest hope of all – is to give our child a treatment and cure for a disease that threatens to take her life sooner than any parent should have to imagine.
If someone is threatening to kill your child, most parents wouldn’t ignore the threat. I believe that most would try to prevent it – to go above and beyond to protect the life and well-being of their child. Mitochondrial Disease is threatening our daughter’s life and we have to stop it. We are on a mission to find a treatment and cure.
2017 Bi-Annual Report
1. Founded the NUBPL Foundation, Inc. to raise awareness and funding for Mitochondrial Complex 1 Deficiency (NUBPL gene).
2)Â In February we had our first fundraiser, Rare Bourbon for Rare Disease. The event grossed $32,000. There is a nice write-up about the event here:Â The Spirit of Giving, Paducah Life Magazine
3) Traveled to California to meet another NUBPL family (The Spooner Family) at UC-Irvine – first time two NUBPL families have ever met. We met with Dr. Virginia Kimonos and other mitochondrial disease researchers at UC-Irvine and toured their lab.
4) I continue to write advocacy articles for The Mighty Publication and we hope to participate in a legislative advocacy webinar in the coming months to help others advocate for Mitochondrial Disease legislation. My latest article for The Mighty is here.
5) We are growing our NUBPL community and are now in contact with another family in Canada and will meet another one in two weeks – the first non-sibling match to our daughter in the world. The more families we can connect with, the more we can learn from one another and fundraise for treatments together.
6)Â In April we participated in 2017 Kentucky Gives Day and received the second highest donations in the state, netting $10,565 (and receiving $1,000 for second place).
7)Â Katherine entered the extension phase of the EPI-743 trial and continues on the drug today. We made several trips to the NIH and presented our journey to attending NIH physicians.
8) In June we with researchers at the Mitochondrial-Genetic Disease Clinic at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and toured their laboratory.
At this point on our journey, we are tackling the daunting challenge of major fundraising. Ideally, we would like to fund all NUBPL research, but at this point we feel the best approach is to research the natural history of NUBPL and to do so as quickly as possible so that a therapy can be determined to help Katherine.
In addition to our NUBPL Foundation GiveGab fundraising platform, we have established the Hope for Katherine Belle Mitochondrial Disease Research Fund at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) to immediately begin researching the natural history of the disease through various animal models.
Every donation matters and is greatly appreciated. Every donation is tax-deductible. Every donation advances critical mitochondrial disease research that will help not just Katherine but countless others. The approach being used will test many strategies that are hoped to be used for other mitochondrial diseases. The natural history studies are necessary to set a baseline against which they can measure the efficacy of the therapies, which show promise across mitochondrial diseases.
We whole-heartedly believe in this research and will keep moving forward to give Katherine and others affected by this disease the best chance at life. We hope you will continue to walk with us as we venture into this critical aspect of our journey. We’ve come so far in four short years; Â I truly believe that, together, we can fund a treatment.
Please consider making a tax-deductible donation today to the Hope for Katherine Belle Mitochondrial Disease Research Fund.
HOPE FOR KATHERINE BELLE 