1. Home
2. Charlie receives support from the Illawarra Community Foundation

Charlie receives support from the Illawarra Community Foundation

Charlie, who has duchenne muscular dystrophy receives support from the Illawarra Community Foundation.

Charlie O’Connor, a seven year old boy from Flinders, is a very bright young boy, who loves drawing, and has a passion for listening to and learning different languages. He teaches himself on google translate, and wants to travel the world to learn about other cultures. His mother is planning to take him to Bali for his 8^th birthday to enhance his learning of the Balinese language. Charlie is always smiling and hardly anything dampens his spirits despite the fact he suffers from Duchene Muscular Dystrophy.

Duchene Muscular Dystrophy, is caused by a mutation in the gene that encodes dystrophin and protein that helps maintain muscle cell structure. Without dystrophin, muscles are unable to operate properly, suffer progressive damage and die. The progressive muscle weakness leads to serious medical problems such as being paralyzed from the neck down, and until recently young men with Duchene Muscular Dystrophy usually did not survive much beyond their teen years. Thanks to advances in cardiac and respiratory care, life expectancy is increasing and many young adults with DMD attend college, have careers, get married and have children. Survival into the early 30s is becoming more common, and there are cases of men living into their 40s and 50s.

“Watching Charlie struggle with his condition knowing the outcome is very hard, but watching him thrive with what he enjoys is the most rewarding part of this whole journey him and I are on together,. Thanks to funding from the Illawarra Community Foundation, we can spend the money and time on what Charlie loves to do in life, making his quality of life better than ever,” says Charlie’s mum Ami O’Connor.

After submitting an application to the Illawarra Community Foundation, Charlie & Ami will now receive fuel & food vouchers to help make life a little easier in dealing with Charlie’s condition.

“We are happy to support young Charlie and his mother with food and fuel vouchers to help reduce the financial burden on their family” says Mark Rigby, i98FM Illawarra Convoy Manager. “Assisting young children and their families through difficult times is what our event is all about”

Funding information is available on the www.illawarraconvoy.com.au website.