Alumni Giving Tree

David and Bethany Wallace are 2016 graduates who currently reside in Pennsylvania with their four children- two boys and two girls who are five years old and younger. Last year, they noticed some abnormal regression in their young daughter, Charlotte. Motor skills and tasks that should have been simple were becoming difficult and then seemingly impossible for her to achieve. After taking her to many specialists, the doctors concluded at the end of July 2023 that Charlotte had a rare form of Battens disease, a terminal disease that affects young children and tremendously shortens their lifespan. Since Charlotte, now 2 years old, has the rarest form of this disease, her expected lifespan is also the shortest– doctors estimate Charlotte will die around age 5. After receiving this heartbreaking news, Bethany and David wanted their other 3 children tested. Their two sons, Nathaniel (5) and Jayson (3), do not have Battens disease, but their 6-month-old daughter, Sophie, has also been diagnosed with the same rare form of Battens disease as her sister, Charlotte.