By MHUGHESBOX
Added: Wed, 26 Jan 2011 23:23:43 UTC

My name is Mark and my beloved daughter's name is Sophie-May. Almost 6 years ago she was born with pontocerebellar hypoplasia type 6 caused by the RARS 2 gene fault. This is a progressive metabolic disorder which is very rare: as far as her geneticist knows, there have only been 4 other children born with the condition and all sadly passed away before they reached 18 months.

Sophie is severely brain damaged and depends on my wife Kelly and me for her daily care. Like I said, it is a progressive neurological disorder so things will get worse. Anyway the point I'm trying to make is that Sophie will be 6 in May and she wouldn't have got this far if it weren't for her geneticist who helped in discovering her diagnosis, her paediatrician for his medical knowledge and care, the ear nose and throat surgeon at Bristol Children's Hospital for my daughter's tracheostomy to enable her to breathe, the metabolic specialists, physiotherapists, homecare nurses, etc etc. I could go on but you get the picture.

I used to go to the church on the camp where I work (I'm in the Royal Marines) but since watching The God Delusion, Enemies of Reason and The Genius of Charles Darwin plus reading The God Delusion, I've realised that going to that church, all the praying, the begging really, never did anything to help my daughter. I'm an atheist now because I know that religion has never played a part in keeping my daughter alive.

I'm so humbled by the work her medical team do, it has made religion seem petty by comparison. Please tell me what you think, thanks very much!

TAGGED: ATHEISM, FAMILY/FRIENDS/COLLEAGUES, MEDICINE, RELIGION