By VICTORIA STONE-MEADOWS
NINE-YEAR-OLD Belgrave South Primary School student Kai Malcolm wanted a way to help his baby cousin Isabelle, who has been diagnosed with Bloom’s Syndrome.
Kai proposed the idea of a dress-up day for his school to raise money for genetic illness research.
The students and staff at Belgrave South Primary School had a ‘Minion Mania’ themed dress-up day on earlier in the year to help Kai and his family.
Students were able to dress as ‘Minions’ from the Despicable Me movie franchise in exchange for a gold coin donation with the money raised from the day being donated to the Melbourne Genomics Health Alliance.
Kai said he wants the money raised at school to go towards helping find a cure for the rare genetic illness his cousin will battle for her entire life.
“They have to look into it a lot and it takes a lot of money,” Kai said.
Kai shared his one-year-old cousin’s story with his class and said he wanted to find a way they could all help her.
Kai’s idea was then taken to the junior school council who, with the help of teacher Mr Ronan Stafford, came up with the ‘Minion Mania’ dress-up fund-raising idea.
“Isabelle is quite small and so are Minions,” Kai said.
“She weighed 1.4 kilos when she was born and she is one year old now but she still fits in clothes for eight-month-old babies.”
Bloom’s Syndrome is a rare genetic illness that affects the stability of a person’s chromosomes. This instability leads to short stature and immune system deficiencies that leave the individual at risk of various types of cancer, diabetes, respiratory issues and possible sterility.
The students raised a total of $404 on their fund-raising day, which Principal Kerryn Baillie said was very impressive.
