Little Heroes recently announced a new partnership with the Childhood Dementia Initiative. There is very little known about the 70 different variants of this condition. The Foundation is currently running the campaign ‘Raise it for Renee’, supporting South Australian mum Renee Staska, with all three of her children diagnosed with terminal childhood dementia.
In Australia, over 2,000 children are living with childhood dementia. This disease causes a child to progressively lose skills such as the ability to write, read, talk, walk, and play. This can happen over months, years, or decades as their brains slowly deteriorate which eventually leads to the inability to keep the body functioning properly and, eventually, to keep the body alive. Childhood dementia causes around 90 deaths a year – this is a similar number to deaths from cancer in children aged 0-14.
Little Heroes Foundation aims to contribute to treatments and eventual cures for childhood dementia, as well as equitable and quality care for people and families like Renee’s.