No parent should ever have to accept that there is no hope to save their child's life. Having battled TTTS, we experienced firsthand the power of hope. Thanks to vigilant seeking of information, we were able to reach hope. For us, our miracle worker was Dr. Quintero who saved our babies lives. Today we have two beautiful healthy twin girls. They have no affects, health issues or otherwise from their battle for survival. We know we were very lucky to not only have them survive, but without any adverse affects is nothing short of a miracle.
With our battle a success we could have easily taken this victory and returned to a normal life. However, that was not us and we knew that awareness was the key to providing hope to others being affected.
In 2004, Lonnie left his full time position as a CFO and spent the next eight months creating the Race for Hope Hope (fka TTTS Race for Fetal Hope) organization and event. The Race for Fetal Hope's mission is to raise awareness through its events, support other organizations missions in fighting TTTS, and fund medical research. Within its 2 years, the Race for Fetal Hope reached more than 1 million people directly and indirectly through its events and awareness campaigns. The first two events, in Denver, raised more than $50,000 and has become a main attraction.
In 2006, the Fetal Hope Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit charity, was born from the Race for Fetal Hope. Fetal Hope was created to align a truly patient supported foundation to the leading fetal maternal medicine centers and doctors around the world, to support additional fetal syndromes that are not currently supported by other organizations, to provide factual medical information on fetal syndromes, to provide unconditional support to families dealing with these syndromes, and to provide an outlet for the fetal medicine centers and doctors to publish and inform the public on new technologies providing hope to save our babies.
Fetal Hope and Race for Fetal Hope Founders - Lonnie & Michelle Somers
