Orange lights the way to help Geraldton boy Micah Bressington

Geraldton’s Queens Park Theatre will be lit up in orange tomorrow, joining buildings nationwide like Adelaide Oval, Queensland’s Gabba and Perth’s Bell Tower and Matagarup Bridge. For Geraldton, it’s all because of one boy. Micah Bressington has Fragile X syndrome, a condition that affects the 10-year-old’s life and his family’s in many ways, but one most people know little about. “I’ve never met another family (with someone with the condition) in Geraldton,” mum, Rachel, said. She said she had video calls with other families in Perth and the Eastern States, and said there was another family in the region, but wasn’t sure where. It was possible others had the condition without being diagnosed. There were also different types of the condition. She said Micah had a deletion of the X gene, whereas in other people the X gene was expanded. She said Micah was an active boy who goes to Holland Street school and was up at 4am or 5am getting ready for the day. He had support during the week and enjoyed fishing, bike riding and other activities. He also likes swimming and cooking. “He goes to church on Sunday morning and night, goes to Sunday school,” Rachel said. “He likes trains and he likes riding his bike. “He likes going on his iPad a lot, try to go out bike riding and (other activities) with family every Saturday morning. “He’s got quite a good sense of humour, so he likes funny shows.” Fragile X Association executive director Wendy Bruce said the syndrome was the leading cause of intellectual disability and the most common known single-gene cause of autism. She said about 1 in 3600 males and 1 in 6000 females have the condition, while people may also carry it in their genes without knowing, and 90,000 people were affected nationwide. She said she hoped awareness and testing would increase. Mayor Shane Van Styn said the City was proud to support the Light Up for Fragile X campaign by making the lights orange at the theatre. He said the City turned the theatre lights different colours throughout the year to support different members of the community, trying to match the requested colour as closely as possible.