This week, 7News Spotlight follows the story of Tilly, a nine-year-old with childhood dementia who has become part of a groundbreaking gene therapy trial.
Michael Usher investigates the treatment that has stopped the disease in its tracks and whether it could help shape the future of dementia treatment.
Coming up tonight:
Could this little girl help unlock a future where some forms of dementia is stopped in its tracks?
When Kate and Lachlan Page welcomed their first child Matilda, life couldn’t have been better. But at just three months old, Tilly was diagnosed with a cruel condition – childhood dementia.
The diagnosis was terminal. Her parents were told she would have just a few short years and her devastating decline would be like that of an adult dementia sufferer. Today, Tilly is nine years old, full of energy and “miraculous in her averageness”.
In this 7NEWS Spotlight special investigation, Michael Usher meets the remarkable little girl who has made medical history – and investigates whether the breakthrough treatment could one day transform the fight against all forms of dementia.
“This is a story that I’ve wanted to tell for years, and now we can,” Usher says.
“It’s an incredible medical miracle. A one-off fix for a little girl’s terminal diagnosis. An experiment that worked and stopped a very cruel diagnosis in its tracks.”
Tilly is among 40 children worldwide still being monitored as part of the groundbreaking gene therapy trial while they wait for the treatment to receive regulatory approval.
But for other families, time is running out. The revolutionary treatment remains tied up in red tape, leaving desperate families without access to the therapy that changed Tilly’s life.
Watch the trailer HERE.
