Guild Announcements

Thanks so much to all the wonderful attendees and volunteers that made the 9th Annual 'Cure for Mito' Auction and Dinner a huge success.

To read a "A tribute to Dr. Saneto" By Teri Rose click here (pdf)

Cal's run took place on April 17th in Issaquah and it was a huge success, raising over $11,000 to help the Bertsch family with Cal's medical expenses. Click here for Cal's run photos. Katelyn's walkathon took place on June 11 at Magnuson Park in Seattle. The event helped raise over $6,000 for the Mhyre family to help with some of Katelyn’s medical expenses. Click here for Katelyn's walkathon photos.

The guild is very excited that Seattle Children's Hospital has now officially established a Program for Mitochondrial Medicine and Metabolism. This program provides care for children with mitochondrial diseases and metabolic disorders that affect mitochondria. Care for children with mitochondrial problems requires teamwork by many kinds of healthcare providers. The team of professionals available to help children with mito includes experts in neurology (with specialty in epilepsy), anesthesia, biochemical genetics (with specialty in inborn errors of metabolism), neuropsychology, neuroimaging, vision and eye movements, cardiology and gastrointestinal disorders.

Seattle Children's program combines expert clinical care based at Seattle Children's with cutting-edge research taking place at Seattle Children's Research Institute. Our clinicians and researchers work together closely. This is one reason we can offer state-of-the-art care and diagnosis and the latest treatments. These include new therapies being tested in clinical trials.

New Guild T-Shirts Available

Do you want to make a donation to the guild through your annual giving campaign at work? Or, make donations directly to the guild or donate items for the annual auction? Please visit the donations page.

What is Mitochondrial disease?

Imagine a plant that is unable to make use of the sun and water surrounding it. Over time the plant will not function properly and will show signs of distress, its leaves will begin to wilt and eventually it could die. That is what happens to people with mitochondrial disease.

Everyday, we consume food to make the energy our body needs to function. If our mitochondria are not functioning correctly then the body's organs begin to suffer.

A person's brain can be impaired, their vision could become dim, their muscles can twitch spastically or they can become too weak to walk or write, their heart could be weakened, and they might not be able to eat and digest their food.

For large numbers of people, especially children, this is precisely the situation in which they find themselves due to defects in the mitochondria.

Depending on which cells are affected, a child can suffer from strokes, seizures, gastro-intestinal trouble, blindness, deafness, muscle failure, diabetes, kidney and heart trouble, developmental delays, immune system problems and liver disease.

Whole systems within a body can begin to fail and the life of the child is compromised, changed or ended.

Experts estimate that one in 2,000 babies may inherit some kind of mitochondrial illness and some experts are saying that the number could be as high as 1 in 1,000. 10% to 50% of these children will die before their teenage years.

Currently there is no cure.

Defects in mitochondrial function have now been linked to many of the most common diseases of aging including Alzheimers, and Parkinsons.

For additional information on how you can help please contact Jill Herczog at j.herczog@nwmito-research.org or Ashley Farrington at a.farrington@nwmito-research.org.