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Founders Statement

After the initial diagnosis, the co-founders of QJDMD set their minds to leaving a legacy for a boy with a fatal, yet rewarding diagnosis of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy – never letting the community fight alone. QJDMD remains a non-profit organization, located within the Republic of South Africa, striving to create a pathway and lead South Africans to support and care, during their early stages of diagnosis.

Today, our mission for creating awareness, leaving a legacy for Quade and providing fundamental tools for families & friends of the community – affected by the disability within our reach, is as relevant as it was in 2021 when the organization was established. Since then we have evolved into an organization that provides answers, that helps families beyond the diagnosis itself and gets things done – thanks to our “go-getter” attitudes.

When QJDMD was founded in 2021, our motivation was to leave a legacy for our son – Quade Smith – a young boy with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. We set out our values with integrity, transparency and a high code of ethics, which we have called “The Journey“.

Now, we are focused on building resources for the “differently abled” community. We aspire to give everyone the tools they need to increase their knowledge, health, happiness and enable a successful quality of life, for the newly diagnosed patients and family members affected by rare diseases. We firmly believe that everyone deserves the opportunity to achieve their full potential and though we feel that opportunity is evenly distributed, the opportunities available to the Duchenne and rare diseases communities are not the same. We aim to be the non-profit organization that will pave the way to better medical diagnosis and care within the community, lay the foundation for the way forward – to encourage and assist our communities in standing together – as we join the fight of creating equality of life, within the lives of our boys.

Our ultimate goal is to assist with the things, from funding for those newly diagnosed, all the way to providing funding for research related to finding a cure for Duchenne within the South African community. We are proud of each person that offers their time and/or resources to this cause – in helping the organization grow from strength to strength each year – leading up to our vision of finding a cure.

 

Our kindest regards

Gerrit and Jade Smith