Precious little Kaitie

Our story begins in Febuary 2005 when our precious little Kaitie was born. Apart from being small for a full term baby she was just 'perfect'. For the next 2 years we watched her grow and learn and become a very cool little girl! Then, the day before her 2nd birthday our darling Kaitie was diagnosed with Mucopolysaccharidosis type 1 Hurler syndrome (MPS1-H).  This is a rare, genetic, degenitive, incurable disease which, 10 years ago, was 99% fatal, the children becoming retarded and dying, usually between the ages of 5 -10. But we are lucky! Science has discovered that as this is a blood disorder caused by the body's inability to make a certian vital enzyme, it was also discovered that a bone marrow or stem cell transplant would literally save these kids and give them a relatively normal life. As Kaitie required an unrelated transplant, we had to leave our rural SA home and live in Sydney for the transplant to be done there.

Shortly before we left for our 4 months in Sydney we were made aware of The Hudson Maher Foundation. The HMF generously provided us with a more than adequate shopping voucher each week as well as completely paying for various family members to fly over to see us, and Kaitie. This made a terribly tough time a little less stressful and enabled us to focus more on our baby's treatment. Their assistance was not only generous, money aside, being able to see our family when we were so very far from home and going through a transplant with our sick child was absolutely priceless! In the midst of any parents very worst nightmare Tanya and Brett established this wonderful, invaluable, generous foundation for families just like ours. They will forever be in our hearts and we can not encourage you enough to support this brilliant foundation; and to those who already contribute to or have donated to The Hudson Maher Foundation - THANK YOU!

Kimberlee & Brad Francis

It is my privilege to walk the road less travelled ... The Hurler's road