Illness Profile: Charcot-Marie-Tooth (Muscular Dystrophy)

CMT (Muscular Dystrophy) is a neurological (affects the nervous system), hereditary (can be passed down through generations) disease. It is named after the three scientists who discovered it: Jean-Martin Charcot, Pierre Marie, and Howard Henry Tooth.

People with CMT slowly lose normal use of their arms, hands, legs and feet as the nerves degenerate. It is incurable, but luckily not usually life-threatening.

Current Pals who suffer from CMT are:

Anna-Mae C (14): Anna-Mae also has Cherubism, which means the bones in her face are being eaten by benign tumours, but luckily this condition will get better in time. Anna-Mae is doing very well at the moment.

(Picture credited to postpals.co.uk, information credited to various medical sites)

Illness Profiles

A lot of the Pals' conditions can be complete gibberish to anyone who isn't a doctor. (It was total gibberish to me at first!) I mean, what the heck does Langerhans Cell Histiocytocis mean? If you would like to understand more about a particular Pal's condition, and see it explained in more simple terms than on the Post Pals website itself, just read one of the profiles here. More will get added in time.

Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL)

Cerebral Palsy (CP)

Charcot-Marie-Tooth (Muscular Dystrophy)

(Picture credited to Google Images)

Birthdays and Anniversaries, week of 19/07/10

Here are the birthdays being celebrated and anniversaries being commemorated this week on the Post Pals website.

Enya W, LCH: Tomorrow (24/07/10) is Enya's fifth birthday. Happy birthday for tomorrow, Enya! Why not send Enya a birthday card or a little gift?

Daniel M, Neuroblastoma: Daniel passed away on the 14th June 2008, aged 5. On Monday, it would have been Daniel's 8th birthday. Why not send Daniel's family a letter?

Jack Bradley B, Biphenotypical Leukaemia: Today is the second anniversary of Jack Bradley passing away, aged 9. Why not send Jack Bradley's family a letter?

Christian B, Clear Cell Sarcoma of the Kidney: Christian's moved on, but you might like to know that Monday was Christian's 7th birthday!

Jordan T, Cystic Fibrosis: Jordan's moved on, but you might like to know that today (23/07/10) is Jordan's 18th birthday. Happy birthday Jordan!

Amelia-Grace C, Neuroblastoma: On Sunday, it will have been a month since Amelia-Grace passed away, and her family could really use some post.

Hafsah A: Hafsah is Ayesha A's brother, and it was his 12th birthday on the 22nd. Why not send him a birthday card? (Edit: Sorry if Hafsah is a girl, it's not clear and I'm not great with Indian names :) it sounds like a boy's name to me but I might be wrong.)

Jessenia L: Jessenia is Jaz L's sister, and it was her 4th birthday on the 21st. Why not send her a birthday card? (Jaz's cancer has been declared terminal, so Jaz's family are having a hard time at the moment.)

Matty W, Acute Myloid Leukaemia: Matty W has moved on, but you might like to know that tomorrow is Matty's 15th birthday! Matty was one of the first five children to join Post Pals.

Jack P: Jack is Max P's brother, and it was his 10th birthday on the 19th. Why not send him a birthday card?

Welcome to my blog!

Hi! I'm Dannii Cugini, and I'm 13. I got the idea to create this blog from looking at my favourite charity's website, postpals.co.uk. It is clear that postpals is not a very well-known charity-often, when they raise money, they don't get 7000 pounds, they get 7. But that is enough to send out 14 postcards. They clearly could use some more people to get involved with the charity, and that is why I am trying to make that happen!