JORDAN & GARY ABLETT 'WE FEEL LEVI'S LOVE EVERY DAY'

AFL great Gary and his wife are cherishing every precious moment with their happy little boy

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It wasn't until Levi was about nine months old that Jordan and Gary Ablett Jr first started to suspect something different was going on with the beautiful baby whose smiles and laughter lit up their lives.

Levi struggled to hold up his head unsupported, wasn't forming words and hadn't progressed to solids. Yet, he was a "really happy baby", and for these first-time parents, he was an utter joy to behold.

Their world changed forever a few months later when their baby boy was diagnosed with a rare condition called Menkes, caused by a mutation or change in his DNA, which Jordan had unknowingly passed on to Levi.

"I felt I was somehow to blame and had inflicted pain on my own child, something no parent would ever want to do," Jordan writes in her book One Day At A Time.

OUR BRAVE BOY

The condition is progressive and cannot be cured. Most children diagnosed with Menkes live to just four or five. "Gaz and I have had to confront the hard truth. We don't know how much time we have left with Levi," she says. "Every day we do get with him is a blessing."