Paul Beaumont
Olive's Rett Journey
Fundraising for Reverse Rett
Story
<p>
<p class="yiv1249199207ecxmsonormal" style="margin-bottom: 16.2pt; background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Adobe Fangsong Std R&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; color: #2a2a2a;">Our twins, Olive and Tilda, were born on 20th April 2010. </span><span style="font-family: &quot;MS Mincho&quot;; color: #2a2a2a;"> </span><span style="font-family: &quot;Adobe Fangsong Std R&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; color: #2a2a2a;">They are bright, they are beautiful, and they are the best gifts we could have ever hoped to receive.</span><span style="font-family: &quot;MS Mincho&quot;; color: #2a2a2a;"> </span></p>
<p class="yiv1249199207ecxmsonormal" style="margin-bottom: 16.2pt; background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Adobe Fangsong Std R&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; color: #2a2a2a;">Despite a very difficult birth, and start for Tilda, both girls seemed to be developing perfectly, until just before their first birthday.</span></p>
<p class="yiv1249199207ecxmsonormal" style="margin-bottom: 16.2pt; background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Adobe Fangsong Std R&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; color: #2a2a2a;">Our first clue something might be wrong was when Olive stopped saying ‘Daddy’. </span><span style="font-family: &quot;MS Mincho&quot;; color: #2a2a2a;"> </span><span style="font-family: &quot;Adobe Fangsong Std R&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; color: #2a2a2a;">Then Olive lost other skills.</span><span style="font-family: &quot;MS Mincho&quot;; color: #2a2a2a;"> </span><span style="font-family: &quot;Adobe Fangsong Std R&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; color: #2a2a2a;"> As a parent, you know when something is affecting your child.</span><span style="font-family: &quot;MS Mincho&quot;; color: #2a2a2a;"> </span><span style="font-family: &quot;Adobe Fangsong Std R&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; color: #2a2a2a;"> And as a parent of twins, a change in one child is made even more painfully obvious.</span></p>
<p class="yiv1249199207ecxmsonormal" style="margin-bottom: 16.2pt; background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Adobe Fangsong Std R&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; color: #2a2a2a;">We contacted the hospital, and after an initial assessment and a subsequent further appointment for blood tests, at 11.15am on Monday 3rd October 2011, six weeks after the very first appointment, Olive was diagnosed with Rett Syndrome.</span></p>
<p class="yiv1249199207ecxmsonormal" style="margin-bottom: 16.2pt; background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Adobe Fangsong Std R&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; color: #2a2a2a;">When looking up Rett Syndrome when we got home, we read ‘imagine the symptoms of autism, cerebral palsy, Parkinson's, epilepsy, and anxiety disorders.......all in one little girl.’</span></p>
<p class="yiv1249199207ecxmsonormal" style="margin-bottom: 16.2pt; background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Adobe Fangsong Std R&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; color: #2a2a2a;">A tiny mutation to a single gene has condemned Olive to a life of profound disability and total dependence. </span><span style="font-family: &quot;MS Mincho&quot;; color: #2a2a2a;"> </span><span style="font-family: &quot;Adobe Fangsong Std R&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; color: #2a2a2a;">It is without a doubt one of the cruellest diseases out there.</span><span style="font-family: &quot;MS Mincho&quot;; color: #2a2a2a;"> </span><span style="font-family: &quot;Adobe Fangsong Std R&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; color: #2a2a2a;"> Crueller still, things will only get worse from here. With breathing difficulties, feeding problems, acute anxiety, epilepsy, severe spinal curvature, all likely prospects.</span></p>
<p class="yiv1249199207ecxmsonormal" style="margin-bottom: 16.2pt; background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Adobe Fangsong Std R&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; color: #2a2a2a;">Amazingly there is hope. In 2007 a paper in the Journal 'Science' described an unprecedented achievement: the reversal of Rett symptoms in a mouse model of the disorder.</span></p>
<p class="yiv1249199207ecxmsonormal" style="margin-bottom: 16.2pt; background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Adobe Fangsong Std R&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; color: #2a2a2a;">Scientists are predicting that Rett Syndrome could become the first curable neurological disorder.</span><span style="font-family: &quot;MS Mincho&quot;; color: #2a2a2a;"> </span><span style="font-family: &quot;Adobe Fangsong Std R&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; color: #2a2a2a;"> We know the faulty gene.</span><span style="font-family: &quot;MS Mincho&quot;; color: #2a2a2a;"> </span><span style="font-family: &quot;Adobe Fangsong Std R&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; color: #2a2a2a;"> Scientists firmly believe they know how to restore the gene to health.</span><span style="font-family: &quot;MS Mincho&quot;; color: #2a2a2a;"> </span><span style="font-family: &quot;Adobe Fangsong Std R&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; color: #2a2a2a;"> There is no brain damage, and so a reversal would give Olive a potentially normal life.</span></p>
<p class="yiv1249199207ecxmsonormal" style="margin-bottom: 16.2pt; background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Adobe Fangsong Std R&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; color: #2a2a2a;">There is one problem - the funds to support the research are entirely reliant on private donations.</span></p>
<p class="yiv1249199207ecxmsonormal" style="margin-bottom: 16.2pt; background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Adobe Fangsong Std R&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; color: #2a2a2a;">We're not comfortable asking for money, but a donation from you could go towards giving Olive and the countless thousands of other little girls a chance of a normal life. </span></p>
<p class="yiv1249199207ecxmsonormal" style="margin-bottom: 16.2pt; background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Adobe Fangsong Std R&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; color: #2a2a2a;">Please give generously.</span></p>
<p class="yiv1249199207ecxmsonormal" style="margin-bottom: 16.2pt; background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;"><span style="font-family: &quot;MS Mincho&quot;; color: #2a2a2a;"> </span><span style="font-family: &quot;Adobe Fangsong Std R&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;">Paul & Janie</span></p>