Meet Kenzie

This Double Donation Day, your support of our scientists will go twice as far, to help the 1 in 20 Aussie kids like Kenzie who are living with serious genetic conditions.

Kenzie lives with what is often called an invisible illness, but to her mother Antonia cystic fibrosis is very real.

“The scariest moment for me was just before she turned one,” Antonia said. “I was driving and she was in her car seat, and she started to cough and then she was choking. She was not breathing and she couldn’t clear the mucus. It was very, very scary.”

The outlook for children with CF has improved significantly over the past few decades, thanks to research, but Kenzie still needs to take more than a dozen tablets each day and do daily physio to keep her lungs clear.

“Any time she gets a sniffle or a cold, we're on edge worrying about whether it’s going to get that deep into her chest and get really sick and then whether she'll end up in the hospital again.”

Research is why people with CF are now often living longer. This Double Donation Day, Kenzie's dad Chris is asking you to help keep that progress going.

"Research is so important," Chris said. "I think that's the only thing that will give Kenzie and other kids like her an actual propoer normal life.

"Jeans for Genes is extremely important. The funds that are raised go directly to supporting the people at Children’s Medical Research Institute that are making a real difference so these kids like Kenzie and all the other kids that have these genetic conditions. They're just like everyone else. We want to make sure that they can get the same quality of life that all the other kids around the world have. That’s what they deserve."

Donate today to help families like Amelia's.