Washington Park math teacher Janis Saidler is hosting a walk Thursday to call attention to biliary atresia (BA), a deadly liver disorder affecting her 6-year-old son, Hayden.
Biliary atresia is a rare disease with no cure - only one in 10,000 kids have been diagnosed - and children who are born with it will, at some point, require a liver transplant to survive.
The Hope for Hayden walk begins at 3 p.m. Thursday at the Joan of Arc statue in the foyer at Park. From there, walkers will make their way to Jefferson Lighthouse, where Hayden is a student who enjoys recess. He patiently explains to his friends why he has to wear a spleen guard while he's outside.
"Portal hypertension is an enlargement of the spleen," Janis explains in a letter. "Every year, sometimes twice a year, (Hayden) has to undergo an upper endoscopy to determine if there are any blood vessels in his throat or stomach that could burst ... caused by the portal hypertension, another side effect of biliary atresia."
Janis tells Hayden's story as often as possible to an many people as possible.
"It is my mission to make the world aware of biliary atresia, the importance of organ donation and that there are doctors and families fighting to help fund research for BA," she added.
On both Tuesday and Thursday, the Park Key Club will hold a bake sale after school. "Going Green" t-shirts are on sale for $10 with the message, "Help make the world aware of biliary atresia, one t-shirt at a time."
All proceeds from the bake sales and the t-shirt sales will be forwarded to the GI clinic at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin to help families affected by BA and to help fund BA research.
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