The parents oversleep. Moments later they’ve killed their son. That’s this young couple’s nightmare every day.
The 9-year-old Dylan Siegal and Jonah Pournazarian are best friends. Nothing has been able to separate the two boys from Los Angeles since they've been out of diapers. But 3 years ago, Jonah gets some terrible news: he is suffering from a rare genetic disorder of the liver called Glycogen Storage Disease (GSD) Type 1, which leads to a permanent dangerously low blood sugar.
Only 500 people worldwide suffer from this disease, for which there is no cure. Every couple hours, even in the middle of the night, Jonah's mother must push a cornstarch-water mixture through a tube in his stomach. "We're always afraid that we'll miss the alarm to feed him. Because then he might have a heart attack and die," tells mom Lora and dad Rabin, both with tears in their eyes.
When the then 6-year-old Dylan learns about his friend's disease, he wants to do anything he can to find a cure. So he grabs his crayons. He marches out of his room 2 hours later with his first book: "Chocolate Bar." That's the word that Dylan uses for everything he finds AWESOME. And "Chocolate Bar" is the perfect term for his friendship with Jonah, which he depicts in the pages of his book with his scrawly handwriting. Dylan wants to donate the profits of his book towards research for finding a cure for Jonah's disease.
But no one thought what happens next was possible. Over 25,000 of copies of the home printed book are sold in over 60 countries around the world. At a price of 20 dollars, that means an unbelievable 1 million dollars over 3 years! Every cent flows into a research program that is teetering on the edge of a cure. "It is not a reality," says research director Dr. David Weinstein. "It's no longer just a dream that these children can be cured."
"I am so happy that we finally reached my million dollar goal," delights Dylan. And that children worldwide can be inspired by my story. "I'll still collect money until Jonah's disease is cured forever. I don't want him to suffer anymore and for him to finally be healthy again!"
What an unbelievable friendship between the two 9-year-ods! Dylan put all his feelings for his best buddy into a beautiful picture book and thus can help fight Jonah's disease - with an astonishing one million dollars. If this story also touched your heart then SHARE this wonderful story of friendship with YOUR friends!
