Fighting for Matthew: a parent's activism. (Health).(Medical Interventions for Autism)

Publication: Mothering

Publication Date: 01-NOV-02

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COPYRIGHT 2002 Mothering Magazine

Liz Birt's son, Matthew, was diagnosed with pervasive developmental disorder/autism in December 1996. In 1999, she and her husband took Matthew to the Royal Free Hospital in London to receive treatment. She described the trip in an article published in the May-June 2000 issue of Mothering.

When we returned to the US from London in December 1999, I was determined to get to the bottom of what had caused Matthew's regression and inflammatory bowel disease and to do whatever I could to further the research of Andrew Wakefield, MD, the British gastroenterologist who made such a difference in my son's life and the lives of thousands of other children suffering with abdominal pain like Matthew's.

I founded Medical Interventions for Autism (MIA), a section 501(c)(3) charity, to raise money for this very important research. We have four fund-raising groups, located in Chicago, Detroit, Fort Lauderdale, and Boulder; these groups operate with no administrative overhead, employ no professional fund-raisers, and are staffed entirely by volunteers. Many of our volunteers are parents of autistic children, although having a child with autism...

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