Super Cronk
02-02-06, 12:29 PM
Melbournestorm.com.au
Melbourne Storm stars Billy Slater, Chris Walker, Ryan Hoffman and Jeremy Smith have lent their support to Go The Tan, a healthy lifestyle initiative designed to raise money and awareness of the Freidreich Ataxa Research Association.
This Friday afternoon from 1:00pm the Storm players, along with many other athletes and well known Melbourne identities, will jog the Tan track starting from the Pillars of Wisdom, also known as The Horseshoe.
Friedreich Ataxia - or FA - is a fatal, hereditary, degenerative, neurological disease. Symptoms usually begin between the ages of 5 - 15. Balance and co-ordination begin to fail, with sufferers wheelchair bound by their early twenties. It impairs vision, hearing and speech as it progresses.
Additional symptoms include severe heart disease, scoliosis and diabetes. In later stages of the disease, patients are usually completely incapacitated, often dying of cardiac failure.
Average life expectancy extends only to early adulthood, although some people with less severe symptoms live much longer. Cruelly, intellect remains unimpaired.
Currently there is no cure, but research is starting to provide a bright light for sufferers.
This is a very exciting time for FA research. We are blessed that Melbourne has some of the best FA researchers in the world working here at the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute (MCRI) at the Royal Childrens Hospital.
Without financial support from groups like FARA, our researchers would not be able to continue these projects in Melbourne.
It is a very exciting yet frustrating time as a breakthrough for treatments is so close. Every single contribution makes a difference.
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Great to see the storm players YET AGAIN helping out another charity.
Melbourne Storm stars Billy Slater, Chris Walker, Ryan Hoffman and Jeremy Smith have lent their support to Go The Tan, a healthy lifestyle initiative designed to raise money and awareness of the Freidreich Ataxa Research Association.
This Friday afternoon from 1:00pm the Storm players, along with many other athletes and well known Melbourne identities, will jog the Tan track starting from the Pillars of Wisdom, also known as The Horseshoe.
Friedreich Ataxia - or FA - is a fatal, hereditary, degenerative, neurological disease. Symptoms usually begin between the ages of 5 - 15. Balance and co-ordination begin to fail, with sufferers wheelchair bound by their early twenties. It impairs vision, hearing and speech as it progresses.
Additional symptoms include severe heart disease, scoliosis and diabetes. In later stages of the disease, patients are usually completely incapacitated, often dying of cardiac failure.
Average life expectancy extends only to early adulthood, although some people with less severe symptoms live much longer. Cruelly, intellect remains unimpaired.
Currently there is no cure, but research is starting to provide a bright light for sufferers.
This is a very exciting time for FA research. We are blessed that Melbourne has some of the best FA researchers in the world working here at the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute (MCRI) at the Royal Childrens Hospital.
Without financial support from groups like FARA, our researchers would not be able to continue these projects in Melbourne.
It is a very exciting yet frustrating time as a breakthrough for treatments is so close. Every single contribution makes a difference.
----
Great to see the storm players YET AGAIN helping out another charity.