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Some of you have had the pleasure to meet our son - Tucker Patterson, and some will never be able to experience that joy firsthand. He was affectionate, fun-loving, 4 year old (and two months) boy who loved his sisters and had a special bond with each of our family pets: 'Nikita', 'Jitters' and most recently 'Jersey'. From the time Tucker turned 9 months old, he started missing his milestones and as time passed, signs and symptoms became more obvious. The problem was that he was a 'medical mystery'. In July/August 2008, Tucker spent over 5 weeks in hospital and has had numerous testing done. On July 30th, 2008, Tucker had an emergent MRI on his brain, eye orbit's and part of his spine as a result of an eye exam. On Friday, August 15th, 2008, Dave and I were given the most awful information any parent would ever want to hear... Tucker had a severe form of a Mitochondrial disease, known as "Leigh's Syndrome", it is terminal and patients with this disease generally have degradation of motor skills and eventually death within one to three years from onset. Tucker struggles each day to sit, roll over, crawl or even pick up food or toys and his hands are beginning to contract (it almost looks like he has had a stroke). We are asking for your assistance to raise funds to bring awareness of this horrible disease to as many people as we can, together we can strive to find a treatment and hopefully a cure for Leigh's Disease.

We’ve also started a “Tribute Fund” for Tucker at McMaster Children’s Hospital. Anyone can donate online by clicking here or they can donate over the phone . If you donate online, please answer the two SURVEY QUESTIONS. Be sure to fill in where you would you like to designate your gift to a particular area of Mac Kids. Please type in that you want your donation to be forwarded to the Neuromuscular Disorder Clinic, specifically for Mitochondrial Disease Research. It is important to designate your donation online or over the phone, “A DONATION IN MEMORY OF: Tucker PATTERSON”. Designated donations "In Memory of Tucker PATTERSON" are specifically directed to the Neuromuscular Clinic to aid in Mitochondrial Disease Research. Otherwise, they will just be donated to Mac Kids, not where you intend them to go. The sponsor can choose to be anonymous, or have a card sent to us to let us know of their donation. Any donation of $20.00 or more will be provided a charitable tax receipt.