“Eden was born with all the right signs, smiling, special and ready for anything,” Jessica tells The Australian Women’s Weekly in its December issue.
“Yet at 12 months she wasn’t crawling let alone walking… By the time she turned five, things had deteriorated. An MRI revealed a ‘possible metabolic aetiology’ – a problem with her body’s chemistry.”
Today, Eden has trouble keeping food in her stomach and is confined to a wheelchair, unable to walk. “Eden goes to school and loves learning,” says Jessica. “Sadly, her voice is now also affected because she can’t get enough air in her lungs to speak properly.
“Yet she is still smiling… Despite everything that has happened we still have a lot to be thankful for. We are focussed on our future together.”
Jessica and her family are one of four families to speak to The Weekly about what they have to be grateful for this Christmas. Each has experienced a difficult and sometimes traumatic circumstance that might have shattered their hopes and dreams and yet each has held their lives together and is looking forward, not back.
Susie Latimore tells of her son’s fight with a brain tumour. Wendy and Ken Robinson speak about their ongoing battle with cancer and Rebecca Carroll reveals her prematurely born son’s struggle to survive after his under developed lungs left him unable to breathe properly.
Inspired by their bravery and determination, The Weekly has made donations to charities selected by each of the families – the Australian Mitochondrial Disease Foundation, the children’s cancer charity Redkite, The Starlight Children’s Foundation and Brisbane’s Mater Hospital children’s charity Mater Little Miracles – and we encourage our readers to do the same.
To make a donation, visit: The Australian Mitochondrial Disease Foundation; Redkite; Mater Little Miracles and The Starlight Children’s Foundation.
