I am trying to help a very close friend of ours. Their son has contracted a very rare degenerative heart disease, which at this point can't be cured. Having a sick child can bankrupt a family, as the expenses of doctor visits, specialist consultations, medications, tests, and hospital stays quickly add up to unbearable costs.

A foundation has been created to assist the family with prescription costs, the costs associated with travel to clinics around the nation, and simply just to put food on their table for the entire family consisting of Mathew and 4 other children.

Please read below taken from his foundation facebook page:

In early 2009, Matthew Blanchard, an 11-year-old fifth-grader at Las Vegas's O’Roarke Elementary, contracted a random virus that infected his heart, resulting in a unique heart ailment: recurring chronic lymphocytic myocarditis.

Matthew is the only person in the entire country with this type of degenerative heart disease, which causes his immune system to fight both the virus and the tissue within his heart.

There is no known cure, and doctors across the country are grasping for answers on how to treat Matthew’s illness without creating additional life-threatening risks.

When efforts are made to wean him from the steroids and other medications, he gets sicker. Right now, no one knows for sure how to help Matthew recover; even the Mayo Clinic is stymied.

To prolong his life doctors have suppressed his immune system, so he must avoid strenuous activities and take extra precautions against exposure to germs. This prevents him from going to school, camping with family, or playing his favorite sport: football.

Despite more than a year in and out of hospitals, countless consultations with doctors and specialists, and innumerable lab tests (including seven heart biopsies), Matthew is cheerful and optimistic.

In November 2010, the Matthew Blanchard Foundation was created as a volunteer-driven campaign to help ensure that Matthew's family has the resources it needs to meet the costs of medical treatments – and the expenses of travel to consult with specialists – until doctors find a cure.

To make a donation to this family visit their site ---> Matthew Blanchard Foundation