Baby Lexi Needs Help Please join us 4 Karma

It’s no secret that I have a burning fire inside of me to help my Community. It means even more to me when I can reach out and help my Members. Whitney and her daughter, Lexi, joined Fit4Females this Summer and have become an important part of our community. Baby Lexi is stunning, her eyes are full of life! Whitney’s world has been turned upside down and we need to come together to help by any means possible. I have to warn you that this story is very sad and Lexi’s Mom Whitney is an incredible breath of fresh air. Despite the unimaginable sadness of her current situation, she shows up to class with baby Lexi just to have a tiny outlet from the stress. They are two AMAZING people. Please share this story on social media and everywhere. It could be any of us.

Baby Lexi’s Story

“Lexi was born on June 4, 2015 and was a perfect little girl. She passed all the tests in the hospital with flying colours and we went home the next day. Life was seemingly normal until she was about 2 months; I became increasingly worried that something wasn’t right with Lexi’s development but was reassured that she was just moving at her own pace. At Lexi’s 4 month checkup I wanted to find out more. Lexi was so flexible and was unable to hold her head up, her legs did not move and I knew something wasn’t right.

On October 21, 2015 we received the worst news ever that Lexi had Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA). This is a genetic disease that is inherited, my husband and I are carriers of the defective gene that causes SMA. We had no idea of this and have no family history of any neuromuscular diseases. 1 in 40 people are carriers for SMA and two carriers have a 25% chance that they will have a child with SMA. Our world was completely shaken with this diagnosis.

SMA affects the nerves that go to the muscles. The nerves are slowly degenerating which causes the muscles to atrophy or waste away. Lexi was diagnosed with type 1 which is the most severe and the most common. Children with type 1 rarely ever have the ability to hold their head up, sit, crawl, stand or walk. They have many difficulties with breathing and feeding as the lungs and digestive systems are all affected by the disease. The most horrible aspect of SMA is that the majority of babies diagnosed with type 1 will rarely make it to their 2nd birthday.

This is a hard pill for us to swallow. I still remember the day I welcomed her into the world and I had so many dreams for her, SMA is trying to rip all of those dreams away. I hope everyday that Lexi will be strong enough to fight until a cure is found. There are no treatments available for children with SMA and research on new drugs is the only hope. Increasing awareness of this horrible disease is one thing I want to do in hopes that the more people that are aware of SMA the faster a cure will be found” – Whitney, Mother of the beautiful Lexi

How can you help Baby Lexi?

There are two ways you can help:

Purchase any Fit4Females Winter or Online Train with Trina Program and $15 will be donated for every purchase *valid for purchases from December 8 until December 31, 2015
Drop in to any class for $10 between December 8 and December 22 to any current class on the Schedule *excludes Stroller Boot Camp – all proceeds will be donated – Purchase the $10 Baby Lexi class – you can donate even if you don’t want to attend class
Whitney’s Charity of choice: All proceeds will be donated to Families of SMA Canada. (www.curesma.ca) Your purchases will help raise money to find a cure for Baby Lexi!

In the New Year, we will be holding a Karma Class in Lexi’s name so stay tuned. Please share this story.