Say what you will about Married at First Sight, but a families celebrity encounter during the show has helped a sick boy who hasn’t had a good night’s sleep in his entire life.
Gina Altas' son George,10, was born with a rare condition that has little awareness and no funding.
It’s called Hirschsprung Disease, and it involves missing nerve cells in the muscles of part or all of the large intestine – also known as the colon.
“It’s a genetic condition,” said Gina “We’ve got no family history of it and George is our only child who has it, although I know of some families who have two kids who have it.”
Children are born with the condition and it is usually detected when a baby fails to have a bowel movement within 48 hours after giving birth. Urgent surgery is required to bypass the affected part of the colon, or remove it entirely.
His life, and children like him, will never be simple.
For George, that means each day he has to have his colon manually cleared. He will never be able to clear his bowels using a toilet.
Some children like George have to sleep in an elevated position due to severe reflux. The family was using a wedge for George, but as he gets bigger, what she really needed for his was a hospital-style bed so she can easily elevate her son so he can’t slip off the wedge during the night.
Gina, in an attempt to raise awareness of the condition on behalf of her family and others, began a charity called Help for Hirschsprung Disease. It was during a visit with a family at John Hunter Hospital in Newcastle that Gina was joined by MAFS participant Nicolas Jovanovic, a Newcastle local.
This is when Jo Abi from 9Honey reached out to Gina to talk about her son.
When our CEO David Sexton read the 9Honey story he knew Variety could help and got in touch with the family.
The rest, as they say, is history.
Gina was supported through the application process and in a matter of weeks, the much longed for bed with an elevation function was delivered to their home in Sydney’s inner west.
Before Variety delivered his new bed, George was sleeping with his dad or his mother "every single night".
Now with the bed, which is of ample size for someone to join him and for him to grow into it, Gina is hoping he wakes up feeling well.
“Just wanted to share, George slept through the whole night and ate all his breakfast early which means he didn’t move all night,” she texted the following day
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