Friday the 24th of January may be just like any other day, but for Merriwa team member Glenn Mercer, this day represents a day of recognition for a rare disorder from which he was born with, Moebius Syndrome.
Moebius Syndrome is a non progressive craniofacial/neurological disorder that can manifest itself as facial paralysis, but can impact upon other functions such as respiratory problems, speech and swallowing, visual impairments.
Glenn is a hard working team member at Merriwa who brings an incredible amount of energy and positivity to the team. He says he is fully supported by his colleagues and work mates, feels completely accepted and enjoys working with everyone at Merriwa.
Having Moebius Syndrome affects Glenn’s mouth and speech, and also his vision where he cannot move his eyes left or right. Glenn says “I was diagnosed when I was 2-3 years of age, and it’s only really in the last 8-10 years with the internet and being able to access more information that we’ve found out more about Moebius Syndrome. I was the only person in Wangaratta with it, but there is now another young child, so we have made contact and they are working hard to help create awareness in the community too. We often meet to catch up and talk about it with the family which is great”.
“Through the Moebius Foundation I now talk to people around the world including Portugal and USA, and we have discussions about Moebius, how it can affect us, but also encourage each other to keep achieving things our lives, and provide support to one another.”
Glenn says “It’s great that we have a day to create awareness of Moebius Syndrome, and I feel like I can talk about it in the community. People may not be aware that I have this syndrome and I’m happy to talk about it and let people know. I’ve encouraged people to wear the colour purple, which is the colour of the foundation to show their support, so it’s awesome to see people get involved and support it.”
Merriwa will be celebrating Moebius Syndrome Awareness Day on Wednesday 22nd January with a morning tea and will be encouraging people to wear purple on the day to show their support.
