Every 30 minutes, a child is born who will develop a mitochondrial disease by the age of 10.

The Bradford's home dawning green lights during mitochondrial awareness week

This week, globally, is Mitochondrial Awareness Week. People all over the world are donning green and putting green lights up on their houses all in support of mitochondrial awareness.

Mitochondria are found in the cells throughout our bodies and are responsible for creating 90% of the energy needed to sustain life and support organ function. When mitochondria malfunction, organs start to fail, and people get sick and most often die.

Locals Cathy and Scott Bradford's daughter Maren has Leigh's disease. The disease is a genetic condition that stays dormant until something triggers it to respond.

Cathy explains what symptoms Maren experiences.

"Poor growth, muscle weakness/low muscle tone. She has vision problems, she has difficulty swallowing, there's unexplained vomiting, neurological problems - so she's shaky, respiratory breathing problems, and she's fed by a feeding tube. In some cases, they will have learning disabilities, or they will lose the ability to speak or to hear or see at all."

Parts of the body, such as the heart, brain, muscles, and lungs, requiring the greatest amounts of energy are the most affected by mitochondrial disease.

There is currently no cure or treatment for mitochondrial disease.

"She's not able to walk but she's a normal functioning little four-year-old girl who just wants to be normal." says Cathy, "She's still taking piano lessons, she goes to pre-K, she just wants to be around other kids and she can still giggle,

Four-year-old Maren Bradford, who was born with Leigh's disease, which is caused by a mitochondrial disorderhave fun, and have full-on conversations. She'll talk your ear off if you let her."

Each year, thousands of children in North America are born with mitochondrial disease. Exact numbers of children and adults who have mitochondrial disease are hard to determine because so many people are frequently misdiagnosed. Many are misdiagnosed with atypical cerebral palsy, various seizure disorders, childhood diseases, and diseases of aging. Still others aren’t diagnosed until after death.

"It's so hard to diagnose because so many things about mitochondrial disease affect multiple systems in the body." says Cathy, "So getting a diagnosis can be quite troublesome because it's a little bit here and a little bit there, and the combination of all of them together that ends up wreaking havoc on the full body."

Cathy says much of this week is about raising awareness. Wearing green or setting up green lights, simply to start the conversation about what exactly mitochondrial disease is. She goes on to say that Sunningdale school, which Maren attends, had a 'Green Day' earlier this week to show support for Maren and her ongoing battle.

Go to United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation's website , or MitoCanada.org for more information and to donate to the cause.

Scott, Cathy, Ada, and Maren Bradford