Here we are! We have finally got our website put together & running live. Congratulations! We all deserve a pat on the back. It was not an easy task. It took us a good year with us taking care of our families & our busy schedules.

How can saying thank you be so hard? I was up all night trying to figure out how to say thank you professionally & I couldn't do it. I had writers block. So I decided to do what just comes naturally to me, & that is just saying thank you from the heart. So I sat down, took a deep breath and relaxed. Then I started to reflect on how far we have come & what we have accomplished. We could not have done this alone.

The MCT8 Organization would like start with thanking Dr. Samuel Refetoff & his medical team at the University of Chicago for doing the research that helped to diagnose our sons. Dr. Samuel Refetoff also deserves a thank you for being our Medical Director for this website.

A thank you to Melissa Dempsey the Genetic Counselor & her team at the University of Chicago Genetic Services Laboratories. She is the one that contacted Lisa and me so we can start a support group. Melissa is also the one that has put together the educational materials for the MCT8 condition.

A thank you to the people at the CETT Program which include: Andrew Faucett, Vanessa E. Rangel, and Audrey Gordon. Andrew & Vanessa helped us with our application, which helps include MCT8 in the clinical laboratory testing so it is more publicly available and we can continue the research into this rare condition. Also a thank you to Audrey Gordon for being our mentor & helping us make better sense of all of this. As we felt we were in over our heads. They also helped to guide us to the wonderful team at Genetic Alliance.

Also a huge Thank You to the Genetic Alliance Team which includes: Sharon F. Terry, Amelia Chappelle, and we can't forget Heather Ferguson (who is no longer with the Genetic Alliance, but she did help us get started).
The Genetic Alliance team has been the back bone for our website. They provided the funding for the first year to help us get off our feet. For that we are truly grateful. We have been working closely with Amelia and we could not have done it without her. Thank you so much for your hard work and dedication in helping us get this done. They also helped get us connected with the website builders, Pixelera Inc.

A Big Thank You goes out to Pixelera Inc. for the fabulous job in building our website. Thank you so much for making our dream a reality.

I'm not done yet. I want to send a warm Thank You to Lisa Davis. It has been a pleasure getting to know you as we worked together on putting our ideas together for this website & support group. It was not easy as we juggled email and phone calls back and forth. It is such a good feeling to be able to compare our stories and know we are not alone in this. Also thank you for introducing me to your friend from England, another mother Nicola Cowan whom later joined our support group.

Thank You Nicola for your help as well. It has also been a pleasure getting to know you as well. I believe the three of us are off to a good start. Lisa and Nicola thank you for all your help.

So as you can see one person could not have done this alone. It took the hard work and dedication of many different people, and the MCT8 Organization could not have done it with out you. The MCT8 Organization wishes to send out a warm heart felt thank you to all that were involved in helping us get to where we are today.

Thank You
Sincerely
The MCT8 Organization:
Susan Fidek, Lisa Davis & Nicola Cowan