Leeton Public School students got behind a good cause, holding an inaugural orange mufti day to raise funds to support Prader-Willi Syndrome on Friday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
May 28 is the day is also the International Day of Awareness for Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS).
According to the Prader-Willi Research Foundation Australia, it's a non-inherited genetic that occurs spontaneously, with an estimated incidence of one in 10,000 to one in 30,000 people.
It is a complex syndrome that can affect almost all systems of the body and brain, with different individuals experience symptoms in different degrees and ways.
Year 4 student, Tobias Kelly was diagnosed with PWS at six-weeks-old and has been educating fellow students at Leeton Public and raising awareness about his experience living with the syndrome.
He is one of three children that his mum, Maria Punturiero knows of in the Riverina diagnosed with PWS, the other two residing in Griffith who he is close friends with.
Ms Punturiero said she was really proud of Tobias and excited to see so many students, teachers and even other residents of Leeton get in the spirit and don orange clothing and wigs.
"It has just been so overwhelming the local support from the school and town, everyone in Leeton is just beautiful," Ms Punturiero said.
"The mufti day was really just to raise awareness about his condition and to also help keep him safe in the community by educating people about his condition and how it affects him."
READ MORE
The school day began for Tobias with a pick up from the local fire brigade who dropped him off to a sea of clapping kids and their parents at the school gates.
Leeton Public's relieving principal Rachel Thomason said that the students had all loved getting involved.
"The Student Representative Council have been selling orange wigs and the kids have really enjoyed dressing up and raising money for this cause," she said.
Ms Punturiero, there is still a long way to go in researching and understand PWS.
"Research has come so far since Tobias was born however we still have a long way to go to support diagnosed children into adolescence and then adulthood," she said.
Ms Punturiero said she was extremely proud of her son for helping to raise money for further medical research into PWS.
Support for individuals and their families affected by PWS is available on at https://pws.org.au/. If you would like to donate to the Prader-Willi Research Foundation Australia please head to http://praderwilli.org.au/
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content:
- Bookmark www.irrigator.com.au
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletters
- Follow us on Twitter
- Follow us on Instagram
- Follow us on Google News