Mel Mikkleson and son, Tom,  are featured in a half page spread in the Wynnum Herald’s 7th January Edition – “Tom’s world is a fragile place to be”

Reporter Desiree Duncan says of Mel “A Wynnum mother’s instinct and persistance” led to a “diagnosis, a support group and now she hopes for a clinic”

The article goes on to describe her son, Tom’s, development, his testing and diagnosis of Fragile X Syndrome and some of its more common characteristics. (facial irregularities, developmental delays, anxiety disorders and difficulty controlling emotions, autism and ADHD like symptoms).

Despite how common a condition it is, Mel talks of how Fragile X is largely unknown in the community and shares her concerns on the number of children who may have been misdiagnosed because of this.

Although there is a new adult Fragile X clinic at the Mater Hospital in Brisbane there is as yet no Children’s clinic. Mel and her fellow support group team have been active in helping to raise funds so that this will eventually be possible.

Well done to Mel. This sort of publicity, as well as the other fantastic efforts she has been putting in will help to get Fragile X Syndrome more widely known and more kids will be correctly diagnosed.

Although the whole of the 7th January Edition of the Wynnum Herald is available for viewing online on at the moment, the article itself is not published to the  Herald site. You can view the article  via  PDF copy on our website.