A Very Good Cause

A very good friend of mine sent me an email today. She has a friend, a very cute young boy, who has Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA). She is asking her friends to sign a petition to help get funding for treatment and a cure for SMA. I have signed the petition.

Here is some information about SMA from the petition website:

We need your help to move landmark legislation through Congress that will allocate federal resources to non-profit and research organizations focused on finding a treatment and/or cure for SMA.

SMA is an inherited genetic disease that results in loss of nerves in the spinal cord and weakness of the muscles connected with those nerves.
SMA is the #1 genetic killer of children under the age of 2.
SMA is estimated to occur in nearly 1 out of every 6,000 births.
The gene mutation that causes SMA is carried by 1 in every 40 people or nearly 7.5 million Americans.
There is currently no cure, but the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) have selected SMA as the disease closest to treatment of more than 600 neurological disorders.
Researchers estimate that we are as close as only a few years away from finding a treatment and/or cure.

Please, take a moment to sign the petition. Petition Link