A mum has written a public thank you message to a young boy at a science museum who played with her son who has Spinal Muscular Atrophy.
The mum from Florida uploaded a photo of the boy and her 18-month-old son Kaden to the Facebook page Kaden's Cure for Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA).
SMA is a genetic disease that causes muscle weakness and a progressive loss of movement due to deterioration in the nerve cells connecting the brain and spinal cord to the body's muscles.
The grateful mother wrote on the Facebook post: "To the little boy at the science museum, I don't know who you are, but thank you for being amazing. You let my son play and engage with you.
"You helped him pick up balls from the floor when you saw that he could not. You didn't ask what was wrong with him or why he couldn't walk, you just saw him."
The mum continued: "Kaden is a lot like you, he is very curious and wildly smart.
"He wants to know how everything works. Thank you for helping him turn the lever when you noticed he was too weak to do it himself.
"You will probably never see this but just by being you, you make this world better."
When Kaden was diagnosed at seven months old, his mum set up a website and Facebook page to help raise awareness of the condition and raise money for organisations working to find a cure for the disease.
Explaining her son's diagnosis on the website, she said he passed all his newborn tests.
At two weeks old, he had a lot of reflux and became sensitive to her breastmilk, but he was still a very "happy baby".
The mum wrote: "He did fantastic at his six month visit but as his mother, I was hesitant. I questioned his lack of rolling and baring weight.
"His doctor said since we have seen him roll in both directions by now we shouldn’t be worried and that he was doing great.
"I had a feeling in the pit of my stomach that something was seriously wrong and couldn’t take 'new mummy syndrome' for an answer and started obsessively searching the internet for his symptoms."
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She continued: "After searching for days I finally came across Spinal Muscular Atrophy. I felt a part of myself die inside because every symptom and characteristic sounded exactly like our Kaden.
"I rushed to get him into a neurologist and sat in horror as he was unable to find reflexes in Kaden’s knees. He questioned Kaden’s shaky hands and low tone; all his questions pointed towards SMA."
On her website, the mother writes that half of children diagnosed with SMA will not reach their second birthday.
She hopes to help change this by raising awareness and supporting organisations working to find a cure for the condition, as summed up in her website's tagline: "strength is greater than muscles, together we can cure SMA".
