Team Gianna

Courtney Horton / 2024 Race to $250K!


  • $32,210

    Raised

  • $50,000

    Goal

  • 31

    Supporters

  • 4

    Days Remaining

Recent Transactions

About Team Gianna

Thank you for supporting Gianna and all the FOXG1 children out therei. 


Gianna Concetta ("Gigi"), our 5-year-old (grown up!) little girl with long fox-like red hair, was diagnosed with FOXG1 Syndrome in January 2021. Her diagnosis 4 years ago rocked our world. It not only explained the previously inexplicable challenges of her first year of life including difficult sleeping and eating patterns and her inability to meet typical developmental milestones, but also gave us a great gift- the unparalleled FOXG1 community. 


Today, Gianna continues to work hard making strides in her daily life. She can walk with the support of a gait trainer and is now learning to say individual words using her eye gaze to activate a device to speak for her. She has a battalion of supporters cheering her on and helping her every single day from her three younger siblings to her many therapists, and from her nannies to her new pre-k teacher. We hope and pray that someday she will walk just like her siblings and find a way to communicate with us so she can tell us all the thoughts we know she has inside. 


Until that day, we hope to do our part in supporting the effort of fundraising money to fund research and drug develop to cure FOXG1 syndrome. As a single gene mutation, the possibility of a cure is more than possible. With the funding to support clinical trials in place, the future could be now for children with FOXG1 syndrome. 


Little did we know, we had won the “genetic diagnosis lottery” by getting this particular diagnosis, but we now know it to be true. We are blessed and privileged to be a part of a community of incredible parents who have invested their whole lives into finding a cure for our children. 


More than anything, we ask for your prayers.  We ask firstly that you go to Mary, the Mother of God, and to St. Joseph, whose year we are presently celebrating.  We also ask you to consider seeking the intercession of the newly venerable Dr. Jerome Lejeune, the geneticist who discovered trisomy 21.


Trusting in God's Providence, we know that caring for Gianna (and her younger siblings) is part & parcel of our vocation to marriage, and that the many occasions for self-sacrifice that our children will afford us are blessings: They are opportunities for sanctification, chances for us, by the Grace of God, to become holy in our calling as a married couple.  And for this, we thank God, to whom we owe everything and in whom we place our ultimate trust.


Courtney & Zach