Florida Senate - 2012                            (NP)    SR 2040
       
       
       
       By Senator Thrasher
       
       
       
       
       8-01869-12                                            20122040__
    1                          Senate Resolution                        
    2         A resolution recognizing Jimbo and Candi Fisher and
    3         Kidz1stFund for their efforts to raise awareness of
    4         and find a cure for Fanconi anemia.
    5  
    6         WHEREAS, Kidz1stFund was established by Jimbo and Candi
    7  Fisher after their youngest son, Ethan, was diagnosed with the
    8  genetic disease, Fanconi anemia (FA), and
    9         WHEREAS, in establishing Kidz1stFund, Jimbo and Candi
   10  Fisher launched their public battle against FA in the hopes of
   11  improving treatment options, raising national awareness of the
   12  disease, and helping to fund research that will lead to a cure
   13  for all who suffer from this disease, and
   14         WHEREAS, FA occurs equally in males and females and all
   15  ethnic and racial groups, reducing the average life expectancy
   16  of those who have the disease to 24.7 years, although some live
   17  longer lives due to the unflagging efforts of the physician
   18  research community focused on FA, and
   19         WHEREAS, some patients with FA have no physical
   20  manifestation of the disease, while others have a variety of
   21  health issues including short stature, deformities of the arms
   22  and hands, kidney problems, heart defects, and hearing problems,
   23  and
   24         WHEREAS, as the course of the disease progresses, it leads
   25  to bone marrow failure that necessitates a bone marrow or cord
   26  blood transplant, which increases a patient’s chances of
   27  developing a variety of cancers at a much earlier age than the
   28  general population, and
   29         WHEREAS, there is no cure for the disease itself, but
   30  treatments are available for the bone marrow failure associated
   31  with FA, and
   32         WHEREAS, FA often is not diagnosed or is misdiagnosed due
   33  to the lack of awareness of the disease among physicians and the
   34  public, and it is estimated that 1 out of every 131,000 children
   35  may be affected by FA, and
   36         WHEREAS, it is essential that children be tested for FA
   37  before undergoing bone marrow transplantation for aplastic
   38  anemia or other cancers that generally do not develop in young
   39  adulthood, as FA patients cannot tolerate standard chemotherapy
   40  and radiation treatments, and
   41         WHEREAS, bone marrow transplant is the most common form of
   42  treatment for FA, yet, like young Ethan, who depends on a
   43  national registry of marrow and umbilical cord blood for a life
   44  saving match, 70 percent of all patients needing a bone marrow
   45  transplant do not have a donor in their families, and
   46         WHEREAS, families touched by FA urged Congress to develop
   47  the National Marrow Donor Program, a registry that has more than
   48  14 million donors and facilitates matches with unrelated donors,
   49  and
   50         WHEREAS, Jimbo and Candi Fisher and Kidz1stFund have
   51  expressed their gratitude for the C.W. “Bill” Young Cell
   52  Transplantation Program, a federal program that supports bone
   53  marrow and cord blood donation and transplantation, and
   54         WHEREAS, FA research has led to a new understanding of how
   55  various cancers develop and new ways to treat them, including
   56  ovarian, leukemia, lymphoma, and multiple myeloma, and
   57         WHEREAS, the entire Fisher family and Kidz1stFund are
   58  “OnaKwest For A Cure” and encourage all Floridians to join them
   59  in saying, “I fight Fanconi!” NOW, THEREFORE,
   60  
   61  Be It Resolved by the Senate of the State of Florida:
   62  
   63         That the members of the Senate recognize the efforts of
   64  Jimbo and Candi Fisher and Kidz1stFund to raise awareness of and
   65  fight for a cure for Fanconi anemia, and extend best wishes to
   66  them and their sons, Ethan and Trey.