Charity skydive in honour of Matilda
The parents of a little girl who died of a rare genetic disease are doing what they can to help other sick children.
Simon Berger and Laura Smith leapt out of a plane to raise money for charity on what would have been their daughter Matilda's eight birthday.
Matilda was a perfectly developing three-year-old when she suffered a sudden and unexpected seizure.
Eighteen months later, the couple's little girl was diagnosed with a genetic disorder of the nervous system, called Batten Disease.
“She lost the ability to walk, to talk, to play,” Laura told reporter Paul Dowsley.
Soon, Matilda began suffering hundreds of seizures a day.
“It’s always fatal, there’s no cure, once you’re given that diagnosis, that’s it,” Laura said.
Matilda died in November, and today would have been her eighth birthday.
“To honour her and to raise some money for some organisations that made her life better, we thought we’d do a skydive," Laura said.
Simon and Laura’s brave leap raised almost $5,000 for Glenallen specialist school and Make-A-Wish Australia.
“We couldn’t do anything for Tilda, but we can do something for other kids,” Laura said.
“I wish Tilda was here, but I’m glad I could do this for her," Simon added. "Something good came out of something so terrible.”
It was Simon and Laura’s first jump, from more than 4,000 feet above St Kilda, and they know how Matilda would have reacted if she had been here to see it.
“She’d think we were crazy, but she’d be very proud, and a bit jealous she couldn’t do it too,” Laura said.
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