A cake so pretty, Anna just had to give it a kiss!

Sometimes it’s the little things that make the biggest difference. For Anna and her family, the cake Icing Smiles was able to provide for her birthday was one less item on the to-do list for Anna’s second birthday. While it may not seem like much, it means the world when the top of your checklist reads “find donor kidney”.

Anna was born with 17q12 deletion, which is a rare genetic disorder caused by missing pieces of chromosome 17 in every cell. This disorder can cause multiple symptoms, ranging from impaired kidney development to diabetes caused by malfunctioning cells in the pancreas.

For Anna, the disorder has caused stage 5 kidney failure. Kidney failure occurs when a person’s kidneys can’t filter the waste from blood like they’re designed to do. The only cure is to find a working kidney for a transplant. And this can’t be just any kidney; there are very specific requirements that Anna’s kidney donor must meet. For example, you may think the donor needs to be a child since Anna is only two. The ideal donor is actually the opposite! Transplants have shown much higher success rates when the donor is aged 25 – 50.

With the family’s long list and a hectic doctor schedule, Icing Smiles was happy to provide a beautiful bubble cake created by Becca Torres of BC Cakes for an extra special birthday! To learn more about Anna and her journey, visit her family’s Facebook page.

With Smiles + Cake,

Megan Glynn

Icing Smiles Blog Writer