2 Good Reasons to Help the Cause

The week of Charlie Ristow’s first birthday was the saddest of his parents’ lives. They learned just four days after their little boy turned 1 that he has Duchene’s muscular dystrophy, a debilitating and degenerative ailment.

“It’s a devastating disease we never knew about,” Charlie’s mother, Lisa Ristow, said. “His body is breaking down as we look at him. Why can’t we stop it?”

Though the Yorba Linda family’s first reaction was to deny the diagnosis, made in late May, they have become crusaders for research to find a cure. As part of their campaign, they will appear with Charlie on Sunday on the 32nd annual Jerry Lewis Telethon, broadcast nationally every Labor Day weekend to raise money to benefit children and adults with neuromuscular diseases.

Another Orange County child, 6-year-old Lauren Carter, also will be featured on the 21-hour telethon, along with her parents, Traci and Ken, and 2-year-old brother, Dalton. Lauren has spinal muscular atrophy, which is not fatal or degenerative but interferes with normal muscle development.

The Ristows will be on the air about 8:50 p.m. Sunday on KCAL-TV Channel 9. The Carter family will appear between 8 and 9 p.m.

Lauren Carter, who will be in first grade at Irvine’s Los Naranjos Elementary School, was 20 months old when her illness was diagnosed.

Her mother, Traci Carter, said, “I blamed myself, Ken blamed himself, even my in-laws blamed themselves.”

Though both Traci and Ken Carter are carriers of the recessive gene that caused Lauren’s illness, second child Dalton was born without the disease.

Lauren’s prognosis is not yet clear, her mother said. “Her weakness isn’t progressive, but as she gets bigger it will appear progressive,” Traci Carter said. “She will eventually get weaker.”

The telethon will begin at 6 p.m. Sunday and continue to 3:30 p.m. Monday.

Last year’s program raised more than $49 million for research and for facilities that treat victims of neuromuscular diseases. Children’s Hospital of Orange County is among institutions that receive support from the telethon.