Fred Five run honors life of Boeshans’ son
By Michael Johnson, Editor
A run scheduled for Sept. 28 in Washburn lands on the day Fred Boeshans would have celebrated his 10th birthday. While Fred’s days were cut short, his life allowed his strong parents to be a part of something that is changing lives across the country. And you can help, too. The Fred Five is a 5K run/walk to raise money supporting research that could one day allow all mothers to be screened for a potentially deadly liver disease. Fred was born with and lost a fight with an infant liver disease called Neonatal Hemochromatosis (NH) at 2-months of age. Little was known about this deadly disease in 2003 when it happened to Wade and Stacey Boeshans, who were devastated to lose their first child. NH is caused by too much iron in the liver and usually kills an infant within weeks. Of course, mothers who have the antibody that causes the disease in their child don’t know it until the child is born. Fred was born after a healthy full-term pregnancy but was later diagnosed with NH at the Denver Children’s Hospital, Stacey said.
