We need to raise $3.5 million dollars for research and gene therapy for Batten Disease CLN8.
Our campaign to raise money for Batten CLN8 research and therapy is called Healing Hugs.
Please help us spread the love while we save Sebastian and others suffering from this horrible disease. Please join our Healing Hugs Challenge, donate to the cure and send a #HealingHug video to your friends, family members, co-workers, boss, neighbor or a complete stranger that needs a hug!
Share your videos using #HealingHugs!
Ever since Sebastian was a toddler, he truly believed he could heal people with his hugs. If someone bumped their head, scraped their knee or broke their arm, he would say: “Are you okay? Can I give you a hug? I can heal you.” For a long time, we would just smile and laugh and say how cute and sweet he was, but Sebastian would get upset if we didn’t believe him. He insisted that he had healing hug powers.
Sebastian is now 13 years old, and, to this day, he whole-heartedly believes he has healing hug powers. We can’t explain it, but we believe it too.
Even after his devastating diagnosis and everything he has been through, his big heart still shines, and he worries about other people. He has a younger brother, Gage (age 11), and a baby sister, Skylar (5 months), and he always hugs them to comfort them if they get hurt or if the baby cries. He has the biggest loving heart.
Every day, Sebastian prays that he will be able to get gene therapy treatment and that it will fix him. He says that he doesn’t want to die. He wants to live forever so that he can heal people. I just hold his hand, hug him tight and tell him that he’s going to get treatment and be okay!
It is our mission to save Sebastian, and other children suffering, from this horrible disorder. When we started this campaign, we knew right away that it would be called “Healing Hugs”. After all, everyone can use a hug.
– Teri Fox