A MESSAGE FROM Holly's Team Wesley Fundraising Page
My son, Wesley Mahkato Racine, was born August 26th, 2013. In his 2 years and 4 months on earth, he left an imprint that will last forever. He loved beluga whales, the moon and his family. He loved singing, running and baseball. He was a helper and a huger. He loved his stuffed monster and his big sister.
Wesley was our everything.
Wesley died suddenly and unexplainably in his sleep on December 21st, 2015. Doctors, medical examiners, investigators, genetic scientists... people have tried to figure out how and why he died. But, we have no answers.
Wesley was a happy, healthy, strong toddler with so much life left to live. But, he went to sleep 5 days before Christmas 2015 and he never woke up.
This classification of death is a mystery known as Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood, or SUDC. It is similar to SIDS, but much less common and occurs in children 12 months to 18 years old. We had never heard of SUDC before, until it took our most precious treasure from us.
There is presently no federal funding for SUDC research, even though there are over 400 SUDC deaths a year in children over the age of 1.
In honor of Wesley, I will be running the NYC Marathon and fundraising for the SUDC Foundation. We will keep fighting until a cause and cure for SUDC is discovered. Until no family has to know the pain of kissing your perfectly healthy little boy goodnight, only to realize it was goodbye.
No one should know this pain.
Thank you for honoring Wesley and our mission of education, funding research and supporting The SUDC Foundation.
Learn more about SUDC at www.sudc.org
Love and Light,
Holly (Wesley's mama)
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