Couple on the rare illness that has struck their young son Ezra

HIS LOVING PARENTS WANT TO HELP RAISE AWARENESS OF MITOCHONDRIAL DISEASE

- By ANDY HIRST

Ezra Fletcher, with mum Laura Mattinson and dad Josh Fletcher

A HESSLE-area couple have spoken out about their son’s rare illness and have urged the community to rally round to raise awareness and help with vital fundraising.

Ezra Fletcher has mitochondrial disease, which is a complex, life-limiting condition.

Mitochondrial are like little battery packs inside almost every cell in the body converting food and oxygen into energy and, if they don’t work properly, they can have a major impact - especially in major organs which need the most energy - on general health. Around one in 5,000 people suffer from the condition which makes it one of the most common genetic ones - the number of sufferers is similar to cystic fibrosis and motor neurone disease yet mitochondrial disease is barely known.

My Mito Mission is a unique charity in that it has a central office in Elland, West Yorkshire, which provides awareness, support and fundraising but people around the country faced with mitochondrial disease, like Ezra, set up their own Mito Missions to raise awareness within their communities with any money raised going back to My Mito Mission to help people nationwide affected by Mito.

When Ezra was born in December 2023 to Laura Mattinson and Josh Fletcher all seemed fine for the first seven months and he was always a happy baby. He developed a bad case of bronchitis and the illness really took it out of him, so much so that he needed steroids.