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Maddox Ball
7 Year old Maddox has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy which is a degenerative, life limiting condition from muscle wasting. Unlike most children born with Duchenne, Maddox met his early milestones, often before his twin brother Xander. At 3 years old, his mum Fiona started to notice differences. This was the beginning of a 2-year period and 10 health professionals to get a diagnosis.
DMD is caused by an absence of dystrophin, a protein that helps keep muscle cells intact. Symptom onset is in early childhood, usually between ages 3 and 5. The disease primarily affects boys, but in rare cases it can affect girls.
Maddox loves Fat Cat, Maths, soccer, computer games, The Dockers, Transformers, Star Wars and his Border Collie “Gracie”.
Olivia Riley
9 year old Olivia has an acquired brain injury following surgery to remove a brain tumour. They successfully removed it, but while they were in there discovered a second tumour. After 7.5 hours of surgery and a large loss of blood, the medical team decided not to remove the second tumour and will leave it until it develops or becomes active.
Before her surgery, Olivia loved dance and gymnastics. Olivia is now learning to walk, talk and get back into life. The good news is, doctors believe she’ll make a full recovery!
Olivia is in a wheelchair, a walker and currently graduating to quad sticks.
