A Pella family is once again rallying community support for a rare neurological disease impacting their own daughter and others across the country. Stephen Henderson says the Race to End AHC returns to Pella Christian High School on Sunday, October 2nd. His daughter Estella is a preschool student at Madison Elementary, and according to Henderson, suffers from random episodes of paralysis in different parts of her body and sharp pain that can last for minutes, hours, or days, with no effective treatment available.

“AHC is short for Alternating Hemiplegia of Childhood,” he says. “AHC is an ultra rare neurological disorder that impacts every moment of [Estella’s] life — her mental cognition, her physical ability — every part. So imagine a child who has seven neurological disorders bottled up into one tiny little body — it’s like watching your child sometimes have a stroke, sometimes have a seizure, sometimes go paralyzed, sometimes have muscle weakness, sometimes have full body pain, and this is a reality of our daily life.”

Henderson says he’s thankful for the way the community has supported the cause, and he’s hopeful to see that backing again as they continue to work to find a cure — every .95 of every dollar raised goes toward medical research.

Click here to make a donation and learn about AHC.