The child or young adult with SMA Type III will often develop weakness that may make walking, even standing, difficult. These children and young adults may also experience painful tightening of their muscles and tremors in their fingers. SMA Type IV has the least devastating prognosis. It is adult onset SMA and usually begins between the ages of 18 and 30. Currently, one out of every two babies born with SMA will die by the age of two.
Many diseases rely on funding from major drug companies to find treatments and cures.
Luckily, we are living in a time of exciting breakthroughs in research. Every day there are small breakthroughs that may someday lead to a cure. For the first time, we see an approach to effective treatment in sight, but only if the funding continues. Foundations like Families of SMA are doing what we can to support research for SMA, but more money and attention is needed. Money is the limiting factor that prevents researchers from helping families like mine, teens like Garrett and JJ, and more than 25,000 others.