Kristen Morrison

Dear Dr D,

It’s Down syndrome Awareness Month, and I thought it was time to give you an update. Cast your mind back to December 2006: I called you – the only paediatrician answering calls 2 weeks before Xmas – for which I thank you – and asked if you’d support my efforts to help my new baby with Down syndrome. Amidst floods of tears, I’d done my research. I’d assembled a two page list of the likely health concerns and physical challenges my darling son would face, but felt I could make a difference for him through natural therapies, good nutrition and supplements.

 ‘Don’t waste your money on Omega 3’s – buy a big TV’, you said, ‘Because your life will never be the same.’

Chilling words, Dr D, which have spurred me on in the 13 years since, words which illustrate a certain set of attitudes and expectations for children born with little more than a bit of extra genetic material – as if God gave these kids some extra frou frou from his cutting room floor, to make them extra beautiful.

Your words defied me to get on and prove my fragile, post-partum theory – that I could make a difference, that something could be done, that my son’s life would amount to more than just sitting in front of a big screen, waiting to see how many health concerns & challenges we could tick off my 2 page list. Your challenge  – for which I truly thank you – has enhanced the course of Gryffin’s life, and mine.

Instead, we got busy, Gryffin and I. We worked as a team – tirelessly and joyously, discovering a world of super nutrition and exercises for brain development, while swallowing stinky herbs to boost immunity. Our family crawled kilometres each day, devoured organic food and made countless books to boost his knowledge… building a strong and sturdy body and a mindset which says ‘anything is possible.’

Buoyed by our success, I wrote a book, opened an Organic Food business and started a Charity – and now there are kids all over the world following Gryffin’s lead, defying the odds – while taking Omega 3s…

Today, Gryff is almost 13 and Dr D, you’d be proud – if not bemused. He ticks only a couple of boxes on that list, has barely been sick his whole life and has run in the Melbourne Marathon every year since he was 5.

And if you go to the movies this month, you’ll probably see him playing young Stevie Payne in ‘Ride Like A Girl’. On a very big screen. Gotta love the irony…

Happy October,

Kristen x

Photo of Gryffin Morrison by James Rowe @Prodhaus