Cooper Hadley drives the real Raiders green machine
Cooper Hadley has been a member of the Canberra Raiders since he was born and drives the real Green Machine. He’s also part of pioneering research in the US that could help find medical breakthroughs in the treatment of autism, alzheimer’s and cancer.
Canberra Star
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Cooper Hadley could say “Go Raiders” before he could say most other words.
The little trooper has two rare syndromic conditions along with craniofacial abnormalities and a long list of medical conditions.
But that hasn’t stopped the four-year-old attending most Raiders home games and he’s been a member of the club since he was born.
So there was no way he or his sister Miley, 8, were going to miss their team play in this Sunday’s grand final at ANZ Stadium.
Cooper can often be spotted driving around Crace in Canberra’s north in his Dodge Ram 3500 Dually Longhorn car, decked out with a Raiders scarf and flag.
Mum Melissa Hadley said Cooper is on a first-name basis with his favourite Raider Iosia Soliolia who lives around the corner.
“We bought a Raiders doughnut the other day and straight away he named it Sia,” Ms Hadley said.
“He didn’t start speaking until he was two but one of the few things he could say was: ‘Go Raiders’.
“He’s been going to the games since he was a baby.”
Cooper is one of just five children in Australia with PPP2R5D, also known as Jordan’s Syndrome, a neurological disorder which has left him with developmental delays, hypotonia and an enlarged head.
He is one of two children in Australia who has Schaafyang, which has characteristics of Prader Willi syndrome, which leads to feeding difficulties and joint contractures.
Cooper is part of a large scale research project for the PPP2R5D mutation run by Jordan’s Guardian Angels that will not only shed light on this gene mutation, but has potential to find breakthroughs for intellectual disabilities, autism, Alzheimer’s, and cancer.
Due to what has already been learned about the mutations in gene PPP2R5D and the possibility of reversing some neurodevelopmental conditions, researchers anticipate that a treatment for some of the children or reversal of the mutation will be found, with trials expected in the next few years.
The small number of actually diagnosed cases, just 106 world wide, is due to the mutations having only been discovered in the last few years and the diagnosis currently requires whole exome sequencing, known as” genome mapping”, which is a very expensive medical test.
It is believed that there are many undiagnosed cases of the mutations existing in the world due to this newness and the high cost of the diagnostic test.
Cooper and his family are helping to raise awareness of both of these syndromes to help in advancing the medical profession’s knowledge of these disorders and ultimately finding a treatment or cure.
More information about Jordan’s Guardian’s Angels can be found here.