Baseballers rally behind teenage girl

6 Sep 2012, 8:21 pm   -   Source: SBS Staff - Glenn Osborne
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Melbourne's baseball community is rallying behind a teenage girl with an unusual disability, to get her back in the diamond soon.

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Brooke Kennedy is fourteen and has Primary Torsion Dystonia, which locks her body into unusual positions, and prevents her from walking or talking.

She needs a 50,000 dollar operation - and the baseball community is helping her get there.

The operation is called 'deep brain stimulation' - it's usually used to treat adults with Parkinson's Disease or Tourettes - and has never been tried on a child in Australia.

It involves inserting electrodes into Brooke's brain to control the disruptive signals being sent to her body.

The Kennedys were shocked when they were told the operation would cost $50,000.

Brooke was a regular spectator at Melbourne Aces games, and her inspirational story touched star player Justin Huber. With the support of Huber, the Aces, local clubs and complete strangers, the fundraising effort is racing towards that $50,000 target.

In just two weeks more than $21,000 has been raised.

Her mother says all going well, the operation should happen within 12 months.

“We feel positive now,” Sue says.

“We can do this. This is the first time I've been able to sit here and say 'this is going to happen'."

Help by donating money towards Brooke's operation here.


Primary Torsion Dystonia

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Your Comments

tv-radio-singers should help

zac - from nerang qld, 9 months ago

television and famous artists should help,would be nice that a famous singer as an example kylie minogue or ac/dc organise a concert and rise some money for her,or those early morning tv shows on chanel seven and nine could dedicate 2 minutes to tell the story and display on screen a web or a bank account details to where can donate for her operation needs.sometimes they doing silly draws with a prize to win on the first caller on the phone,they should sometimes dedicate for people with problems

so bad aussie hospital system

zac - from nerang 4211 qld, 9 months ago

i read the story of brooke and it make feel some kind of abandonament from part of government system health,hospitals etc. So now the family and friends have to found the way to rise $50.000 to an operation,expecting from donations? So bad for a young girl, if she was in cuba the problem would be already more than resolved by now Everyone over there is treated as the same rich or poor,health in cuba is the first! How comes a young girl have to wait all that storm? Why? Because a bad health syste

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