After their daughter Evie was diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), Jeff and Dee Horton perceived a lack of knowledge and awareness of SMA in their community and even among many doctors. Desiring to do everything in their power to help Evie and others like her, the Hortons founded Stop SMA, a non-profit dedicated to battling SMA.

Now, Stop SMA is in the running to raise $250,000 for SMA research through the Pepsi Refresh Project. As of today, Stop SMA sits in 4th place among $250,000 candidates, but they need to be one of the top two when the end of the month rolls around to qualify for funding. Supporters can help move Stop SMA up the list by voting each day in March and asking their friends and family to do the same.

At only 12 years old, Erinne Williams is already an inspiration to a lot of people. She was diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) at 14 months of age and doctors predicted she wouldn’t live beyond her 8th birthday. Because of SMA, Erinne has endured more than most of her peers, including multiple hospitalizations and surgeries. While the wheelchair she depends on is plainly visible, the metal rods in her back that help to counteract scoliosis are not. In addition, Erinne depends on a ventilator to help her breathe and a feeding tube to help her eat. But, despite having a disease that progressively weakens her muscles and she knows will some day take her life, today, Erinne is a seventh grader who enjoys playing wheelchair sports like hockey, soccer, and baseball.

Erinne has made such an impact on her community, that it has even rallied around her and her family - literally. A pep rally was help at Erinne’s school as part of an attempt to convince the producers of the tv show “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” to help Williams family obtain a wheelchair accessible house. The application to the show is pending.

To read more about Erinne, click here or here.

To see footage about Erinne, click here.

Dr. Mary Schorth is widely known and respected by those in the spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) community. She is a Pediatric Pulmonologist at the University of Wisconsin’s American Family Children’s Hospital and is the Director of the Pediatric Pulmonary Center Training Grant. Building strong bonds with families around the country, she has been instrumental in the development and advancement of respiratory care for children with spinal muscular atrophy. According to Dr. Schroth, “if they get good respiratory care early on, they will live a long life.”

American Family Children’s Hospital recently profiled Dr. Schroth’s work with Sophia Doebbert, one of her patients with type 1 SMA. Sophia’s parents credit Dr. Schroth with providing them with the hope and the tools to care for their daughter, who is now eight years old. Click here to view the video.

In addition to treating SMA patients, Dr. Schroth has managed clinical trials, participated in the “Thriving with SMA” panel at the FightSMA Annual Conference, and contributed to the development of the Consensus Statement for Standard of Care in Spinal Muscular Atrophy. She also developed a pediatric multidisciplinary clinic for patients with neuromuscular disease, incorporating pediatric rehabilitation medicine and pediatric orthopedic surgery.

Seven year old Kiley McClay, pictured left, has spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). Because of muscle weakness, she gets around using a power wheelchair and receives help from her assistance service dog, Billy. And last month, Kiley made her big screen debut in the film “Extraordinary Measures.” Along with other children who use wheelchairs, Kiley was an extra in the movie. She appears for only seconds, but it was long enough for a close-up. According to Kiley’s mom, Rozie, “It’s not very long, but they showed her a couple of times, and at one point, she was on the whole screen.”

While the film is not about SMA, a story about parents pushing for research into a cure for the rare, neuromuscular disease affecting their children connected with Kiley’s parents, advocates for SMA research themselves. “Families and scientists and doctors are all working closely,” Rozie said. “In the movie, they end up getting a treatment, which is awesome. We’d also settle for a treatment.”

Read more, by clicking here.

Today, Friday, January 22nd, is the last day to cast your vote in support of Spinal Muscular Atrophy research in the Chase Community Giving campaign on Facebook.

The charity that receives the most votes will win the top prize of $1 Million and five runners-up will get $100,000 each. The Gwendolyn Strong Foundation (GSF) is trying hard to hold on to 6th place - a $100,000 eligible position.

GSF has pledge to give 100% to SMA awareness and research deemed most promising by the SMA community. Within 90 days after winning the Chase Community Giving prize, GSF will execute a unique online voting campaign and distribute all funds to the winning programs recommended by prominent and committed SMA scientists and voted most important by the SMA community. Thanks to the first round of voting, the Gwendolyn Strong Foundation (GSF) won $25,000 which has already been distributed to research.

You can only vote for the GSF once, so in order for SMA to have a chance at this critical funding, we need you to not only vote on Facebook, but get your friends and family involved as well.

Go to http://VoteForSMA.com to vote and to learn more.

Thanks to previous votes, the Gwendolyn Strong Foundation (GSF) won $25,000 for Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) research in the Chase Community Giving campaign on Facebook. Now, for only one week from January 15th to January 22nd, SMA has an opportunity to win much, much more!

The charity that receives the most votes will win the top prize of $1 Million and five runners-up will get $100,000 each. GSF has pledge to give 100% to SMA awareness and research deemed most promising by the SMA community. Within 90 days after winning the Chase Community Giving prize, GSF will execute a unique online voting campaign and distribute all funds to the winning programs recommended by prominent and committed SMA scientists and voted most important by the SMA community. You can only vote for the Gwendolyn Strong Foundation once, so in order for SMA to have a chance at this critical funding, we need you to not only vote on Facebook, but get your friends and family involved as well. Go to http://VoteForSMA.com to vote and to learn more.

Attention SMA Families, Kids and Friends!

We want to share your story - starring YOU! FightSMA has a special campaign in early 2010 and we need your help. Send us videos of your family and children breaking barriers: from doing the unexpected (playing floor hockey, skiing, etc), to sharing a cool story about your family, to giving advice to other families, helping them make their lives just a little easier. In 2010, it’s all about you.

We’ll be picking our favorite videos to be showcased and to receive an extra cool prize. More details to come soon!

Please send your video submissions via email or hard copy, along with the patient’s name, age, SMA type, and a fun fact. Here’s how:

Electronically
carolinegibson@fightsma.com
Send us a link to the YouTube or other video hosting site, or via a filesharing website like YouSendIt

Hard Copy
From Our Family To Yours
Attn: Caroline Gibson
FightSMA
1807 Libbie Avenue, Suite 104
Richmond, VA 23226

Questions? Feel free to call or email Caroline anytime. 804-515-0080 or carolinegibson@fightsma.com.

By submitting a video for this campaign, you authorize FightSMA/Andrew’s Buddies to use the submitted footage in its original or edited form in any media. You also certify that to the best of your knowledge, all materials used in your video are your own or are materials for which you have obtained any necessary permissions. You further acknowledge that you submit the video freely and without expectation of compensation for any uses made of the submitted footage.

This morning, NPR’s program Morning Edition aired a commentary by Ben Mattlin, a writer from Los Angeles, California. At just six months of age, he began showing signs of spinal muscular atrophy, a deadly crippler and the number-one inherited genetic cause of infant death. In his commentary, Mr. Mattlin talks about the things he has accomplished despite his condition and how an uneventful year can also mean a good year.

To listen to the segment that aired or to read the transcript on the NPR website, click here.

To One Of The Lucky Ones, The New Year Means More
by Ben Mattlin

For me, this new year is as much about looking back as looking ahead.

I turned 47 in the past year. That in itself is miraculous. I was born with a neurological nuisance called spinal muscular atrophy. It gradually, relentlessly weakens muscles.

In my case, the weakening began at 6 months. About half of the babies with symptoms of SMA die before age 2. Their hearts and lungs become too weak to go on.

I was one of the lucky ones.

I’ve used a wheelchair my whole life. I no longer have the strength to hold a pencil. Am I still one of the lucky ones?

I believe I am. So, why do so many people feel sorry for me?

They don’t know me, of course. They don’t know that I grew up in a great family, graduated from Harvard, get my writing published, got married and fathered two terrific little girls. There are a lot of reasons why I consider myself lucky.

Still, people have said to me, “If I were like you, I’d kill myself.”

This is supposed to be a compliment, I think. They mean to commend my perseverance. So how come I want to say back, “If I were like you, I’d want to kill myself, too!”

Yes, there are some people in terrible circumstances, with painful illnesses, who do want to die. But there are also many, many people living in conditions I don’t envy — famine, war, abject poverty. People whose lives I wouldn’t trade for my own. And they retain a stubborn sense of hope and struggle on.

It happens every day. Nothing all that extraordinary.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t see myself as a modern-day Tiny Tim, cheering everybody up. No, thank you. I reject holding myself up as a triumph of the human spirit.

At home, I grouse and kvetch all the time. It runs in the family.

Plus, life is rough. Like two years ago. I spent most of 2008 in a hospital bed. An infection required emergency surgery. Then something went wrong under the knife. I nearly died.

But here I am to tell the tale. So yes, I do feel lucky. 2009 wasn’t anything special. The usual assortment of good and bad. But it was blessedly drama-free. And that was enough to make it a good year.

Sure, I hope for better in the new year.

But even if I don’t get that, I’ll still say I’m lucky. Because sometimes, just normal is good enough.

All too often, news in the SMA community is full of sadness and heartache as spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) takes its toll. This makes celebrating happy stories that much more important. Here are two such stories.

The Children’s Wish Society of Malaysia (CWS) and MPH Group of Companies have made 13 year old Alicia Loh’s dream come true. Diagnosed with type 2 SMA ten years ago, Alicia has been enjoyed reading books and writing short stories. While visiting America for spinal surgery, Alicia wrote her own book entitled The Last Chapter about a girl trying “to understand the meaning of life.” Now, this book will be available for sale in MPH bookstores around Malaysia. For the full story, click here.

In Connecticut, the Takacs family received an amazing Christmas gift. A community of strangers came together to create a special portable bed for 4 year old Ethan who has type 1 SMA and had outgrown his crib. Ethan’s dad had gone to Hemingway Custom Cabinetry to investigate how much a special bed would cost to make. After learning more about Ethan and his needs, Hemingway Custom Cabinetry and their vendors donated time and materials to create the bed which they delivered last week. To read more, click here.

If you have more uplifting stories to share as we move into the new year, share them with FightSMA on Facebook or Twitter.

Congratulations to our friends at the Gwendolyn Strong Foundation. Their phenomenal outreach across the internet successfully garnered enough votes for the Foundation to be named to Top 100 list in the Chase Community Giving Campaign on Facebook. This honor comes will a $25,000 award and the chance to move on to round two where they will compete for a $1 million grant.

From the Gwendolyn Strong Foundation:

December 16, 2009
Gwendolyn Strong Foundation Top 100 Charity, Wins $25,000 Grant From Chase Facebook Campaign

This is truly unbelievable, incredible!

Today, we received news from Chase that the Gwendolyn Strong Foundation was selected as one of the top 100 charities, based on YOUR votes, in their Chase Community Giving campaign on Facebook. Thus, GSF will receive a $25,000 grant from Chase and will advance to round 2 of the campaign with a chance to win as much as $1 Million.

We’re still gathering information and to be honest it’s still sinking in, but we wanted you all to know this amazing news right away since none of this would have been possible without each and every single one of your votes and your personal, passionate efforts to prop the Gwendolyn Strong Foundation up on your shoulders. This is another humbling example of how this vibrant, active SMA community and every person that this horrible disease touches can collectively accomplish anything that we put our minds to as one, united, motivated voice.

We are excited to be donating 100% of this grant to Dr. Hans Keirstead’s promising SMA stem cell program at UC Irvine. As most of you know, this groundbreaking research has the potential to cure SMA and have a material, positive impact on all science forever. We know that this grant will help Dr. Keirstead and his team accelerate the process to get this treatment to human clinical trials as safely and efficiently as possible and to the children in need of a cure.

From the bottom of our hearts, thank you, thank you, thank you to each and every one of you. Now, on to ROUND 2! As a community, let’s go get that $1 MILLION to help CURE SMA once and for all!

Click here to go to the Chase Community Giving campaign on Facebook to see the top 100 charities.

Click here to read the press release from Chase.

Don’t know what spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is? Learn more here.