Campaign Story

My name is Stephanie, I’m a 36 year old Marine who served five years active duty. I was focused on my career until it came to an unexpected end after a bad day at work. After being responsible and waiting to settle down, I got married only to find out that some of what I thought were traumatic brain injury symptoms, were actually a result of rare genetic disease that I was unaware of having. Learning more about this disease, we found that I have a mutated X chromosomes that if passed down to a male will cause them to be blind and that there is no guarantee that if passed to a female, she would still not be blind. After consulting with genetic counselors, the only way to guarantee that this gene is not passed down is through IVF. VA and insurance does not cover IVF as we try to give a quality of life to our child that includes being able to see. I’ve dreamed of being a mom my entire life and we are hoping to start our family before it is too late. Even a $1 would be most appreciated as we struggle through this new challenge in life.