Meet Ella

Meet Ella

We will remember February 26th for the rest of our lives.

On that day, we received the call from the Greenwood Genetic Center that they had discovered our daughter, Ella Marie, has Kleefstra syndrome.

Very early on, my wife, Kelly, observed Ella being delayed in some of her milestones. Kelly monitored Ella’s progression and sought out testing in an effort to get Ella some assistance. Along the way, we were sent to GGC and met with Dr. Roger Stevenson and Wesley Patterson. From our first meeting, they have been incredibly compassionate and supportive. When we received the diagnosis, what initially felt like a sentence of sorts quickly turned into an opportunity. In our first post diagnosis meeting, we met with Wesley, Dr. Stevenson, and Dr. Giovanni Neri, who was visiting for the month from Rome. We felt incredibly fortunate and supportive to have such incredible individuals as a part of Ella’s team. Dr. Stevenson is brilliant and compassionate and we are honored to have him working with Ella. We had a million questions as we first began navigating our new normal, and Wesley answered them every single time. Fran has also been a wonderful resource to our family and our individual needs.

Ella is an amazingly sweet, determined, and busy little girl, and her diagnosis hasn’t changed any of that!

Ella is now 5 with two incredibly supportive and protective older brothers, Jackson and Griffin.

Ella’s future is extremely bright! We are incredibly thankful for the team at GGC. We honestly feel that we have been given this opportunity, and the fact that the GGC is in our community only strengthens that belief. Thank you to the whole team for not only helping us identify this rare syndrome, but to also lift us up as we move forward! The GGC has become family and an integral part of “Team Ella”. They have and continued to provide ongoing support and care for our daughter and family. We are honored to support GGC and the foundation for contributions they make to our family and other families in similar situations.
-Geoff Rhyne

Meet Jeremiah

Play peek-a-boo with 9 month-old Jeremiah Licorish of Florence, and you'll be rewarded with a huge grin that lights up both his and his mother's faces. But this family has been through the unthinkable over the past few months, with very few reasons to smile. At first things were going well. Jeremiah was a happy, healthy newborn, doted on by his mother, Aneesa, and his three big brothers. But when Jeremiah was around 5 months old, Aneesa noticed ...

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