Allie’s story grabbed the public’s attention when she was only an infant. She was infected with the virus by a mosquito when she was only 3 months old and she was not immediately diagnosed. The bite changed her life forever.
“She has a hard time controlling her muscles and she gets frustrated that she can’t. It lets us know that her body’s not, her mind’s not letting her body do what it needs to do,” her mother Tina said.
Triple E caused severe brain damage. Allie can’t speak and there’s little she can do on her own. With constant therapy, however, she has improved. She’s off her feeding tube and is finally seizure free.
Her family is taking her to China where stem cell treatment is legal and provides some promise for Allie. Her mother Tina says the treatment is experimental and the stem cells are from the umbilical cord of healthy babies.
To help pay for the $25,000 trip, Allie’s family started a fund at Citizens Bank for donations. But after seeing NewsCenter 5’s story on Allie, local philanthropist Ray Tye said he knew what he had to do.
“When I watched that story, I realized there was an opportunity to save a life of a child and that the family was doing all they could but just didn’t have enough money to do it,” Tye said.
The mission of the Ray Tye Medical Aid Foundation is to “facilitate access to medical treatments for financially vulnerable individuals in our society.”
“It was just amazing and wonderful. My husband and I stared at the ceiling for a couple of hours as if we had won the lottery, a new lease on life,” said Tina.
“She is just a beautiful girl. She deserved that opportunity to live a life that is long and comfortable and natural. What I feel is that money can save lives, and that is why I am doing it,” said Tye, whose foundation helps about 100 people and their families each year.

thebostonchannel.com

They don’t call ‘em “bundles” for nothing. If you’re a celebrity with a baby bump, what to expect when you’re expecting is mega money - if you’re lucky enough to sell their pictures.
We’re headed into a bumper season of baby buggies. Halle Berry has welcomed daughter Nahla last Sunday, the day after Jennifer Lopez prepped month-old moppets Max and Emme for their first photo shoot.
While J.Lo’s love don’t cost a thing, the snaps of her duplicate darlings sure do. Estimates run from $4 million to $6 million for the cover shoot that hit People.com at 7 a.m. Thursday morning.
“This is a time-honored tradition,” says Steve Cohn, editor-in-chief of Media Industry Newsletter, which tracks the publishing biz. “Babies sell.”
In 1953, the first cover of TV Guide boasted newborn Desi Arnaz Jr., only the son of the most famous woman on television.
In the half-century since, fascination with celebrity families has swollen to third-trimester levels.
“Celebrities have become our sisters and brothers. We know them better than we know our immediate family,” says magazine watchdog and journalism Prof. Samir Husni. “We follow their every move. We know more about their kids than we know about our own relatives. Our nuclear family today is Mom, Dad, two kids and Brangelina.”
No wonder fans crave a look at J.Lo and Marc Anthony’s tot twosome. For New Yorkers, it’s a bit of hometown pride. (Jenny from the block in the Bronx has hit the mommy mother lode!)
And in a week that, for this city, has been fraught with Wall Street shakeups and statehouse wakeups (not to mention Beatle breakups), Jen’s babies are a boost of bright-eyed news.
It’s the same reason why, nationwide, high-born newborns can pull in paychecks equivalent to those of their celebrity moms and dads.
“To be honest, magazines are probably overpaying for baby pictures as far as the bump they get in circulation,” says Jill Stempel, New York bureau chief of the World Entertainment News Network, “but it’s a matter of reputation.”

nydailynews.com