"I need your help," WXYZ's anchor Stephen Clark tells viewers.
He's talking about donations and support in battling the childhood disease, spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), the number one genetic killer of children. There is no cure, no treatment and very little public awareness of the disease.
He reports on his granddaughter Scarlet, who has the disease.
“This is the most intensely personal story I’ve reported in 35 years of television, my granddaughter Scarlet’s story,” said Stephen Clark. “Of all the neuro-muscular disorders, SMA may be the closest to a cure. But research takes money which requires awareness.”
The website, Cure SMA, describes the diseaseway:
SMA (spinal muscular atrophy) is a disease that robs people of physical strength by affecting the motor nerve cells in the spinal cord, taking away the ability to walk, eat, or breathe. It is the number one genetic cause of death for infants.
SMA is caused by a mutation in the survival motor neuron gene 1 (SMN1). In a healthy person, this gene produces a protein that is critical to the function of the nerves that control our muscles. Without it, those nerve cells cannot properly function and eventually die, leading to debilitating and often fatal muscle weakness.SMA affects approximately 1 in 10,000 babies, and about 1 in every 50 Americans is a genetic carrier. SMA can affect any race or gender.
