Neurofibromatosis Awareness

For the past four years, I have been writing on the tv show BONES. Three years ago, my wife, Kelly, and I were blessed with our first child, Natalie, who was born with an anterior lateral bowing of her left tibia as a complication to her having Neurofibromatosis (NF). At the time, my wife and I had never heard of the illness - and we were blown away by the strange cosmic irony that I work on a show called BONES and my daughter has a bone issue.

Over the past three years, Natalie has undergone multiple surgeries after her tibia fractured. After one such surgery when a rod was inserted into Natalie's tibia, our daughter was made to wear a spica cast which immobilized both legs. She wore this cast for over five months - and she did so without complaint. Needless to say, she is our hero.

Last year, my wife and I did a lot of praying and came to the conclusion that my working on BONES could be a great opportunity to help spread awareness of NF and also help to raise funds to find a cure and/or treatment. Neurofibromatosis is an illness which is relatively common, but little is known of it. NF affects 1 in every 3,000 children born, more common than more than Cystic Fibrosis, Muscular Dystrophy and Huntington’s combined.

My wife and I have helped raise awareness and funds in a variety of ways. I wrote a BONES episode highlighting the illness, we've gotten local businesses involved - also, every year, we take part in the Los Angeles NF walk which raises money for The Children's Tumor Foundation (the leading researcher for NF).