Jacob was born on December 27, 2001. He was sent home from the hospital with a clean bill of health. At the age of four months, Jacob was diagnosed with SMA, Type 1. He was never able to roll over, sit up or crawl. By the age of six months, he had lost the ability to swallow. On October 1, 2002, Jacob's respiratory muscles had grown too weak to sustain him, and he died. He was nine months and four days old. We miss him every minute of each day.

Sadly, Jacob's story is just ONE of many. We had never heard of SMA, but now we have pledged our lives to fighting this horrific disease. We have chosen to do this to honor our son's memory.

The Jacob Isaac Rappoport Foundation invests money in research to find a cure for SMA by sending most of the money raised to Families of Spinal Muscular Atrophy (FSMA) an international SMA organization. To date, we have contributed over $350,000 to research through FSMA. We have also been continuing to fund and organize our own support programs of sending packages and dinners to sma families. We have sent 85 families packages or dinners and provided scholarships for 100 adults to attend fsma conferences in the past five years.

In the Summer of 2007, our family attended the Families of SMA annual conference in Chicago. Our Foundation presented FSMA with a check for $110,000! of that donation, $50,000 was allocated to further drug discovery; $50,000 was designated to begin funding for a clinical trial site for type 1 patients in the Southeast; and $10,000 was designated to stem cell research.

Thank you for making our foundation an integral part of the progress toward finding a cure! we owe our success to our supporters and we are so grateful!

We are always amazed at how our Jacob, whose life was so brief, continues to touch so many people. We are making a difference and we know that Jacob must be proud!