SMA stands for Spinal Muscular Atrophy.

SMA is a devastating, genetic disease. It is a leading genetic killer of infants and toddlers, with approximately 95% of the most severely diagnosed cases resulting in death by the age of 18 months. Children with a less severe form of SMA face the prospect of progressive muscle wasting, loss of mobility and motor function. But their minds are unaffected resulting in bright, intelligent children with varying degrees of physical impairment.

• SMA is currently incurable and often fatal
• 1 in every 6,000 births is affected by SMA
• 1 in every 40 people is a carrier of the defective gene that causes SMA
• the child of two carriers has a one in four chance of developing SMA
• SMA affects motor neurones in the spinal cord. This results in muscular weakness, leading to severe disability and the possibility of premature death

SMA is currently incurable.