Friendly bridge game benefits tuberous sclerosis sufferers

~ A group of friends wanted to help the little boy and came up with a fun way to raise funds.

What started out as a friendly game of bridge between friends developed into nearly $10,000 raised to benefit research of a rare genetic condition -- tuberous sclerosis complex.

Nearly 1 million people worldwide are known to have tuberous sclerosis, with about 50,000 in the United States. There are many undiagnosed cases due to the obscurity of the disease and the mild form symptoms may take in some people.

Jackson Kozisek, a 3 1/2-year-old from Kansas City, suffers from tuberous sclerosis. He is the grandson of Dr. Hugh and Linda Tewis of Cape Girardeau. Kozisek's mother, formerly Laura Tipton, is a 1987 Cape Girardeau Central High School graduate. For three years, Jackson's grandmother and her bridge-playing friends have raised money by holding a bridge benefit with a $25 minimum donation to play in honor of Kozisek and Natalie Brown, a little girl in Jackson who also has the condition.

TSC is a genetic condition characterized by lesions of the skin and central nervous system, tumor growth and seizures. Some individuals experience developmental delay, mental retardation and autism. Tuberous sclerosis is transmitted either through genetic inheritance or as a spontaneous genetic mutation.

Children have a 50 percent chance of inheriting TSC if one of their parents has this condition. At this point only one third of TSC cases are known to be inherited. The other two thirds are believed to be a result of spontaneous mutation. The cause of these mutations is still a mystery.

Tewis said, "Three years ago when my friends discovered Jackson's condition, they wanted to help in some way. I said there's really nothing you can do. Then we thought of contributing to research. We send out invitations to the bridge tournament that include an update of Jackson's progress to about 175 people and those who can't play send in donations anyway. A lot of them are really generous."

Jackson goes to school four days a week where he receives physical, occupational and speech therapy. He has experienced a positive year and had the opportunity to learn, which was unavailable when he was having as many as 13 seizures a day.

In two years the bridge tournament, held at Dalhousie Downtown in Cape Girardeau, raised $12,000 altogether, but this year's tournament raised $9,538 for TSC research.

Winners in the tournament were: first place, Kay McKaskle; second place, Norma Blattner; third place, Lois Boston; fourth place, Evelyn Riley; and fifth place, Mary O'Neal.

cpagano@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 133