Dear Friends,

 

    There is a box, and it sits on a very high shelf.  When you go to get the box down from the shelf, you cannot reach it.  You think you can reach it, you get a stool, and your finger can touch the box, but the box just changes its position on the shelf, still out of reach.  So, you go and get help from a friend who is taller than you, and the box comes down from the shelf.  Only now do you notice the box is locked.  You look around, and find a bunch of keys, but none fit.  So, you put the box back on the shelf for a while, until the right key can be found.  You hope the key will be here soon and that your friend will still be there to help get the box down for you again.  You know, deep in your heart, that all of the things you need to open the box will arrive, when it is time.

 

    This is the way that I see the cure for diseases like mine, Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis with Uveitis and Glaucoma.  I wonder what will happen to me and the other kids who have this disease.  I wonder when the cure will be found.  I wonder who will find the cure, and I wonder how many other children will be helped also. 

 

     Until then, I hope that other children will be as lucky as I have been.  I have the best doctors, and I get the best care.   I still have great vision.  I wish all children like me were as lucky.  I don’t think that they are, though.  Lots of them can’t see as well as they used to, and lots of them still go blind.

 

    I hope that you will join me to help those other children, and help my doctors to get closer to finding the key to our box.  You can do this by buying a woven wristband, and all of the money you give will go towards helping me and other kids like me.  The band is printed with K.U.R.E. which stands for Kids Uveitis Research and Education, the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins and cost $5. 

 

    Thank you for reading this letter, and thanks for your help.

 

Sarah

age 10