Thanx for helping to spread the word about Quinn and VCFS. We have a young daughter who was born with the syndrome. Quinn has been and will continue to be an inspiration for her and for her parents.

Great info! My you youngest daughter & husband have the deletion. I love that the word is getting out there, maybe 1 day the whole world will know what 22q11.2 DS/VCFS is.

Thank you for this book. My daughter was born with VCFS 6 yrs. ago & I have struggled to learn about this syndrome to help her. Her school doesn't really know anything they keep putting me off. Her ped.(doctor) doesn't tell me what to prepare for. I keep reading things to try & learn about her. I have tried to apply for assistance to help her with disabilites but I get no where its not like a child that has down syndrome or ceribal palsey?? People know what that is ---ANYHOW THANK YOU SO MUCH I CAN SEE THINGS & UNDERSTAND THINGS I NEVER THOUGHT ABOUT!!

I would like people to be aware that VCFS is not rare, but may occur in as many as one in every 2,000 births. In addition, approximately thirty percent of VCFS patients suffer from mental illness. My sister, for example, endured a serious psychosis from age 20 until her death early this year due to complications of VCFS. Every day for more than two decades she had to battle the voices in her mind, trying to ingore the insecurities, fears and terrible images they presented to her. Once her psychosis began, a normal life was no longer an option for her or the immediate family. She lost most of her friends, was forced to drop out of the community college that she had worked so hard to attend, and moved back home with my parents for nearly a decade, until she was eventually admitted to a mental health group home and then to a state mental hospital.

For families such as mine, who have searched every medical angle for suitable treatments for the psychosis without finding one (my father, a biochemist, has even dedicated part of his research to this cause), getting the overall message that VCFS is an illness with which patients can live a normal life is extremely discouraging. I would like people to be aware that VCFS is often not an illness with a happy ending. I hope that increased public awareness of VCFS will be coupled with an increase in genetic counseling of prospective parents, who either have the disorder themselves or are expecting a child with the disorder. This is not an illness to be taken lightly.

Dear Quinn, I saw you on CSPAN the other night. As a 75 year-old former Marine and Ph.D.,I was impressed how,despite the many difficulties, you have reached this point in life with courage and on an even keel. The challenge going forward is to be your own man despite,yet with the love&support of ,your accomplished parents.I'm sure you will succeed. C G Conway