Two desperate parents will head to the High Court in London today, in the hope they’ll be granted permission to travel to the US with their sick baby, Charlie.
Chris Gard and Connie Yates, of west London, want to take Charlie to the US for medical treatment, as he suffers with a rare genetic condition with no known cure.
And after revealing on Sunday evening that they had crowdfunded over $2 million (NZ) for an experimental treatment in America that might save him, the couple revealed they must now ask the High Court for the opportunity to take him to America.
Charlie’s doctors have already applied for permission to switch off the infant’s life support, and apply a palliative care regime.
Parents Connie and Chris with baby Charlie
Nearly 80,000 people pledged money towards Charlie’s cause, sharing the hashtag and his funding page across social media.
Writing on the page, the seven-month-old’s parents said:
“Our gorgeous little 7 month old boy Charlie has a devastating disease called mitochondrial depletion syndrome. Me and his Daddy Chris are both carriers of a faulty gene. (This was unknown to us until Charlie was 3 months old.) “
Over the course of Charlie’s life, he has been gravely ill, but the couple are adamant that their baby is given a chance at life – despite the doctors’ orders.
“We won’t give up on him because he has a rare disease. He deserves a chance and he deserves a life as much as anyone else. We understand that rare diseases don’t get enough funding for research but why should that be a reason for a child to die,” the couple wrote.
