Hey y'all! This is Hazel Kay and this is her story.

Hazel was born at 34 weeks via c-section due to me being high-risk. She was just 4lbs 13oz and spent her first 3 weeks of life in the NICU. During her time in the NICU, she was diagnosed via the newborn screening with Spinal Muscular Atrophy, Type 1 - a rare neuromuscular disorder that causes muscle weakness. It wasn't until she was two months old when she started to show signs of decrease muscle tone and leg movement.

At the time of her diagnosis, we were living in Alaska, and the medicine was still new which is why we hadn't started gene therapy. Once we noticed the muscle weakness, we got her started on 1 of the 3 gene therapies as soon as possible. Today, she has had all 3 gene therapies and still takes one daily. She has gotten so strong and doing amazing!

On top of daily medicine, Hazel does physical therapy once a week and in-home developmental therapy once a week.

As much progress as Hazel has made, there are still some things she struggles with. For example, she falls a lot and is unable to stand back up on her own without assistance.

Now the reason for this GoFundMe is to help Hazel get into an Intensive Physical Therapy her therapy clinic is now offering! The approach used in an intensive therapy is called Dynamic Movement Intervention (DMI) which promotes neurological maturity and will overall help Hazel reach her fullest movement potential. This will require Hazel to do a session once a day, five days a week for two weeks at a time. We feel Hazel will really benefit from intensive and continue strengthening her hips and core muscles.

Unfortunately, insurance will not cover an intensive therapy which is why we are asking for help to send her. Even if you can only donate $5, we are very thankful! All donations will go straight to the therapy cost, and anything left over will go to the next intensive session.