I promised my
son Jack when he was
only 6 hours old and only a tiny baby in the palm of my hand
that I
would be there to protect him and keep him safe
until he is man enough to look after himself
I
intend to keep that promise.
Dad's
page: My name is Trevor White and this page
has been designed with resources for Dad's trying to deal with the
issues of
watching our children struggle with genetic disease.
I am not a
shrink or social worker or any bullshit like that, I am just a bloke
who knows how painful this has been for me. This page is here to
let
you know that there are people and resources out there to help get you
through
this and
to help support your family and children when they need you the
most.
My son Jack has
a big beautiful SMILE, this
SMILE keeps getting BIGGER EVERYDAY and that
drives me forward to finding a cure and saving my son.
But where do I
start. I started this website to try and answer the
unanswerable questions. You may ask what are you talking about, but
just
think about everytime you ask a simple question to one of the many
specialists
you visit. In my experience, their answer normally leaves me with
manymore
questions .
There are so
many issues to try and deal
with at any given time. I've only been
trying to
get my head around Jack's condition for a little over 3 years
now. It was not long ago, when an australian Genetics specialist
told me that my son may
only have a
couple of years
to live. Test
after test, doctor's
appointment after doctor's
appointment - still with little idea of what the diagnosis is and even
fewer answers, my wife
finally managed to get an appointment with this genetics specialist
from Sydney.
My wife and I
sat patiently in this
outpatient clinic in Newcastle, listening to
him. I
remember that
appointment like it was only a moment ago, it will forever be burned
into my memory, like a reoccuring nightmare.
We were in the
doctors' Newcastle rooms.
Jack was sitting on my lap
looking up at me with his beautiful smile
and cheeky eye's and I was making a joke of his chunky thighs and short
stature and saying that he was going to make a great rugby player one
day with his solid little legs.
The very next
words to come out of this
specialist was, he said "I don't
expect your son to live beyond 3
years of age". At that moment you may as well have cut
my
heart out. I have never felt such pain. My breath was taken
away,
I felt myself choking on thin air, not believing this person but
knowing there must be some truth to his statement or why would he say
such an awful thing? I really just wanted
to just kick
the shit out of this person how dare he say such a
thing to us! Where
was his evidence to prove this statement, this horrible outcome?
To base this
statement only
on what he knew at that time and what he has been exposed to in the
past. How can he
know
such a
thing? The truth is that he and nobody else knows, what the future
holds for our
children. We are entitled to believe our children will live full and
complete lives and outlive us as their parents.
If we hold on
to that belief we have the
opportunity to change the
future and give our children their right for life.
This has been
the longest year of my
life. I don't really recall
those first couple of months after that specialists' statement.
My life has
been changed forever, it has been a very painful road to have travelled
to this point, I feel as though I have aged ten years in such a short
space of time.
I now sit
writing a website to try and help
other
people know they are not the only ones struggling to deal with this
burden we carry.
This journey we
take is just one day at a
time....
However, I
believe collectively we will
find a cure to mitochondrial disease,
Be Active In This
Fight!
The only
form of defence to protect
our
children is to attack the threat,
the threat is 'doing nothing'
(apathy).
Choose
to take ACTION and take CONTROL for you and your children, by
developing the
knowledge, skills and
attitude to regain the
initiative.
Fight
Mitochondrial Disease and Help Find a Cure
We must
join
forces and use our collective energy, drive, determination and
resources to find a cure.
Individually
we remain unheard, Together
we become unstoppable! Together we
find or develop a cure and save our
precious children Together we
have a voice We Must Demand
a Cure
I know why I started this website because I cannot standby waiting for
my son to die when I know there is a cure
I know this in my gut...
You
Must Feel and Know The Same thing
We cannot count on our politicians or the church or even the many
members of our scientific
community to save our children. There are many well meaning people and
dedicated people out there however, there are also many who appear to
only throw mud at each
other in a bid to score points when real lives are at stake.
JOIN
ME IN THIS
FIGHT YOU HAVE THE SKILLS
WE NEED
Contact us
anytime, visit our contacts page
Should you
need
some professional assistance to regain your fight
consider visiting the
following site:
One of the
greatest challenges I've found
has been the loss in income, my wife Charmaine once earned as much as I
did and like a lot of parents we planned for her to go back to work
part-time after Jacks birth.
That was three years ago and my wife works harder now that she ever
did, Jack is fulltime employment plus some. We changed our plans a lot
in the last three years. Many of our decisions were based upon what was
best for Jack and the financial implications.
If money is not a concern for you this will be a easier road to travel
but no less painful, however you should have a plan in place because
your life will have many interesting turns.
Money is normally associated with family stress, we see it all the time
on the poor news weeks some unfortunate family tossed out on their butt
because they could not pay the rent, bills etc, these are people with
normal kids and normal problems.
In Britain families with a disabled child or children are amoungst some
of the poorest people in the country. I have not seen any stats for
Australia, however I know there are many families that are struggling
to get by.
Some of these families don't even own a decent reliable car to get
their child to hospital.
Life with a disabled child can
compound normal issue's ten fold, if you haven't excepted this realilty
yet it's time to take a cold can of "harden the fuck up" out of the
fridge and take a big gulp. I'm not going to bullshit you and say it's
easy, I still have some pretty dark days, it is very frustrating and
there will be many difficult times ahead but the rewards are worth it.
My little boy Jack brings immense joy to my life, every little
achievement for him is compounded by our joy.
But there is a down side to give your child the equipment and resources
required to improve their potential requires a great deal more money
than a able bodied child.
I used to own a 40ft cruising yacht, my retirement plan. She was a
casualty of Jacks success fund. The $10,000 a year to berth and
maintain her, money I would spend on Rosie was now required to
supplement a more important cause, my son's future. The sale of Rosie
and
my dream of the Pacific was hard but it put money in the mortgage,
keeping the wolves from the
door.
That was only the start, equipment for disabled children does not cost
$100's but is discussed as $1000's. There are many people getting
wealthy off the backs of hard working families just trying to provide
their kids with the essentials.
I work for the ARMY
The fact
I'm a employee with only limited scope to earn more money
caused me many a sleepless night. I struggled with the concept of
leaving the ARMY for a higher paying job and greater potential to earn
more money for the future expense's that are always there but the
problem was I couldn't risk being without a wage or being put off work
at anytime, I really need regular income for the vast array of bill's
coming in.
Whilst there is always the chance of being put off work in a regular
job, I had to face upto the fact my ARMY job being no less risky, I
have lost a
lot of mates to the ARMY machine, good men taken in their prime. The
Army moves on within weeks of your death but it is the families who
suffer for a very long time.
I was in Afghanistan only last year,
the incredible carnage on both
sides made me realise. As the only income source for my family I could
not afford to get injured or killed. I have responsibilites to people
that need me.
So I continued in earnest my planning and the researching of additional
income
sources, investment property, shares, options, currency trading
on the forex market. I have spent thousands of dollars on courses and
information but I now have several income sources that
are slowly supplementing my wage and will one day replace it when I
leave the ARMY.
I had been studying internet marketing prior to Jacks birth but with
his problems one month slipped past to one year and then a second. I
finally caught my breath and started planning a exit statergy from the
ARMY with multiple income sources from internet business and other
investments.
I am mostly working on building up passive income sources so that if
something should happen to me the income will continue for the people I
provide for.
All of the above planning has helped move me forward finacially, but it
is the
business I have setup on the internet that makes real sense to me.
My internet business consist of several income producing websites, a
marketing service for offline business wanting to get online and a
consulting service. Most websites don't make any money, they are just
expensive advertising and cost thousands every year to maintain. Most
are maintained by companies who prey on the consumers ignorance. Most
of these companies don't realise that if their clients earn more money
then so will they.
Why tell you any of this,
easy DON"T MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE.
START
PLANNING TODAY
I intend to teach anybody who has a child with a medical condition and
who wants to learn everything I know about
creating additional income sources from the internet and investing for
free. There will still be costs to incure, but you will not pay me a
cent.
OK so Why?, thats easy for me to answer. So that YOU earn enough money
for all your families needs, plus enough to spend on Mitochondrial
research and finding cures.
And if your like me
your focus will be finding a cure for
our kids.
The
more people with the resources to do that the sooner
I save
my son's life
So get onboard and start making money, if I
can do it so can you!
There's only one catch you must offer the same service to other people
who have kids with this insidious disease.
Lets get them out creating
empires
and earning towards a cure.
Go to my Tools page and START
Is it easy NO - Does it work YES
You will
find all the resources I use listed on the resources page. I
list them in business units, as this is how I see them and how I use
them.
I provide reference
to those tools that have made me money.
You
may want to check out my friend Lou's Website, Lou is a work at home
Mum. She has developed a web business that is offline and online.
Lou recently retired
from her day job so that she could stay home and look after her kids
and continue to build a business for her family.
Lou provides Free
DVD's and also Books that have great ideas and program's that can help
you earn extra income, I use many of the ideas to supplement our
family's income.
The Resources Page is COMING soon
I will asking Lou to provide further tips
and idea's for WAHM's and
a few Dads
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I also list books
to read, you have to get your head straight and start
planning for your successful future. There are to many people who have
a dependancy attitude, they want the government to look after them and
their child.
Well let me tell
you I've seen the service the government provides and
in most case's it excellent, but more often than not you get what you
pay for.
If your not paying
for it and there are hundreds of kids all needing
equipment and services. You can end up with equipment that is rubbish
and health professionals straight out of UNI.
Many are very
motivated, some are great, some are idiots but the last
thing you need is a motivated idiot working on your child, been there
done that, not any more.
We are fortunate
that all of the health professionals employed to work with Jack are
experts in their choosen fields, however we are very selective. If we
cannot find those employed within the government funded programs.
I now pay for the services and equipment that my son deserves. If it's
not the best then it's not good enough, we only have a short window to
build a solid base for his future development.
