Click here for HALLOWEEN FUNDRAISER and the Jack Black picture.

Thanks for visiting. If you don't have time to look over the 9 pages in this website, please read this paragraph. Many diseases of aging have been found to have defects of mitochondrial function, including type 2 diabetes, Parkinson's, atherosclerotic heart disease, stroke, Alzheimer's disease, and cancer. By focusing on mitochondrial function and mitochondrial disease, UMDF funded researchers may find compelling data that could advance treatments for numerous age related diseases – which has far-reaching implications for us all. This disease that most have never heard of might one day explain everything they fear. How is mitochondria related to common diseases? Click here to find out.

Currently, donations fund all research through UMDF. They receive no federal funding for the research projects that lead the way in the fight against mito. Learn how you can help.

Life with mito:
Before Jude, I went wherever I wanted to go and did whatever I wanted to do with Jett. When I was pregnant with Jude, I remember telling one of my friends, "My life is so perfect. Nobody's life is this perfect, and I just wonder when it is going to rain on my parade." Call it mother's intuition, but I knew that God's plan for Jude was very different. His birth announcement stated, "You saw me before I was born and scheduled each day of my life before I began to breathe. Every day was recorded in Your Book." Psalm 139:16.

I created this website in June 2006 because I thought we were going to lose Jude soon. His prognosis was poor. Our efforts were inspired by his journey, and our main reason for awareness and research is to be proactive regarding his uncertain future. However, savejude.com is NOW more about helping a huge community who desperately needs research of the mitochondria. It is also to reach out to all those out there who need resources, help, and support. "Every blessing I will turn to praise." I sang those words in church recently. Jude, unlike most mito kids, has started meeting milestones. As long as he is stable, I have time to dedicate to this cause. And maybe kids like Jude, and those who are so much worse, will see some type of medicine or cure in their precious little lifetimes.

There are two amazing families living with mito that have inspired me. One is a mito mom, and she and her husband have 10 children, including other kids that they adopted. Another is a mito family with 5 children. Neither family got a diagnosis until the most affected children were born--the last two. This is a very difficult disease to live with, and it is hard to get a diagnosis. We found out when Jude was 17 months old and had pursued it since he was 2 months. Some of the families we know had to wait through multiple children and a decade. Please tell people about mitochondrial disease.