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Saturday July 9, 2016  
 
Stella Adele Bartlett

Stella, our first child, was born April 21, 2010. She was a bright and well tempered newborn and for most of her first year she developed just like the rest of her little friends from library and swimming.The first sign that Stella was falling behind came when it was time for her to start to sit up on her own and to crawl. It was at that time [about 8 months old] that we began to notice she was actually beginning to lose some of the abilities she had initially mastered. We sought the advice of some wonderful doctors here in Toronto but, feeling like we needed to do whatever we could to get a solid diagnosis quickly, we brought Stella to Houston TX to seek the advice of a Neurologist who ran a battery of tests and determined that Stella was most likely suffering from SMA.

In shock, unable to understand what this meant, and how we were going to help Stella we immediately hit the internet. Probably not a great idea but it did lead us to FSMA Canada and the Rebecca Run . In June, just a month after diagnosis, we were in Florida for the FSMA conference, meeting some of the most incredible families and children being effected by this terrible disease. Then on that beautiful day last July we outfitted friends and family in their green “Team Stella” t-shirts and did what will be the first of many Rebecca Run s.

Since then we have had the pleasure of meeting many of the families in the Southern Ontario region that are dealing with or who have dealt with this cruel affliction. Their kindness, generosity and guidance has been a source of inspiration and hope.

At the time of this years Run Stella will be just over two years old and she will have a 4 month old little brother. She is always smiling, quick to make friends and we could not be more proud of her.

Myles and Sarah Bartlett

For more info on Stella visit her blog >> www.sarahandmyles.com/stella