Written by Malcom Munro
When four-year-old Miranda Friz plays outside with her little chums, her mom makes sure Miranda wears her protective headband. None of the kids ask why she wears it. Mom Karen Munro and dad Pete Friz told moms and dads in their street about FOP and why Miranda needs to be extra careful. Miranda should avoid very physical games as well bumps and bruises, parents told their kids. The kids heard and understand. Miranda’s popular “big brother” Owen at only seven years is often touchingly protective. He understands. None of this seems to impress Miranda very much – her sunny disposition and ready smile somehow a perfect match for her headband’s bold colors and patterns!
At the time of my granddaughter Miranda’s diagnosis, it was only a few months before I retired from my work as a business school academic. When my wife and I recovered from our initial shock, I began thinking about how I could help find a cure for FOP beyond donating to IFOPA. I taught electronic commerce at the university and thought I might generate some research dollars by selling products on the Internet while increasing public awareness of FOP. But what should I sell? I had no answer for months until I gathered ideas from our extended family – my own adult children, brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews. I got many suggestions, the most common of which was to sell toys. I soon settled on educational toys because it seemed to fit nicely with a campaign to find a cure for FOP.
My next challenge was to find an appropriate name. I had read the book by Carol Zapata-Whelan titled Finding Magic Mountain: Life with Five Glorious Kids and a Rogue Gene Called FOP. With this inspiration, I struck on Magic Mountain Toys as a particularly apt name, the idea of climbing a mountain being a wonderful analogy for finding a cure. The same analogy had been effectively deployed by Dr. Kaplan in his reports on the progress of research at the FOP Lab.
I invite you to visit our educational toy store at www.magicmountaintoys.com Note that 100% of the profit is donated to the FOP lab at the University of Pennsylvania. You can help find a cure for FOP by visiting our store whenever you need to buy toys (though we are only able to ship to North American addresses at present). You can help even more by telling members of your extended family and your personal network of friends about this community fund raising effort and how they can help. The more involved, the better – and the sooner we will find a cure for Miranda, Erin Kate and all our loved ones with FOP! �
