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Harvey Bowling Club members prepare for 24-hour bowlathon to support eight-year-old Ariella Italiano

Headshot of Sean Van Der Wielen
Sean Van Der WielenHarvey-Waroona Reporter
Harvey Bowling Club captain David Goddard, Ariella Italiano, 8, and club member Anthony Burnham are getting ready for Rolling for Ariella.
Camera IconHarvey Bowling Club captain David Goddard, Ariella Italiano, 8, and club member Anthony Burnham are getting ready for Rolling for Ariella. Credit: Sean Van Der Wielen/Harvey-Waroona Reporter

A Harvey sporting venue is set to host a match marathon to support a local girl with a rare genetic condition.

Five players from within and outside the Harvey Bowling Club will bowl for 24 consecutive hours from 11am on January 25 to raise awareness and funds for a condition called TBC1D24.

The condition is the result of a genetic mutation on a gene of the same name, and is extremely rare with there only being around 100 cases worldwide.

Young Harvey resident Ariella Italiano, 8, is the only known case of the condition in Australia.

Some of the symptoms Ariella experiences due to the gene mutation include epilepsy, global development delay, low muscle tone and a weakened immune system.

However, mother Brooke Italiano said her greatest challenge was her regular episodes of paralysis, which can impact her for extended periods of time.

“Right now she is walking around and stuff but at lunchtime she could just completely lose her muscle tone and not be able to move,” she said.

She will lose her muscle tone early in the day around two to three times each week, but will do so on most days by the late afternoon or evening as she becomes tired.

It was a long process of discovering the condition for Ms Italiano.

“From about five weeks old, she just started with abnormal eye movements but they were always talked up to something else,” she said.

“Then from about five months old she had her first generalised seizure and that’s when a lot of the other problems starting presenting too.”

Ariella was not diagnosed with the condition until she was three, after undergoing genetic testing at Princess Margaret Hospital.

From there, it was a matter of Ms Italiano finding an online support network.

“I just connected with other people on Facebook, there wasn’t really any other way because what she had was so rare,” she said.

The bowlathon was the brainchild of club member Anthony Burnham, who hoped the event would show the club’s ability to give back to the community supporting it.

“The idea with it is that we can raise awareness and some funds, we can put that towards research and hopefully, getting a better quality of life for Ariella and anyone else that may be struck down by it,” he said.

It is the second time the club has undertaken a 24-hour long bowling event around the Australia Day public holiday, having raised around $30,000 last year for club member Calvin Rodgers, who was diagnosed with bowel cancer in October 2021.

This year, the club has not set a target for its fundraising activities.

“If we raise $2000, it’s great. If we raise $40,000, it is awesome — it is just whatever we can,” Mr Burnham said.

“It is not just about raising money — we can wear the event shirts to other tournaments and it brings all questions about ‘oh, what is all this about?’, so it is raising awareness after the event as well.”

The five bowlers will have to play against different opponents and each other, playing for 50 minutes before having a 10-minute break to eat and have a rest.

Mr Burnham is not so sure he is going to get a break.

“Last year, people wanted to talk to you, so you think ‘I’m going to get something to eat’ and then by the time you get spoken to by four or five people, you’re out there bowling again,” he said.

Alongside Mr Burnham, four other bowlers will take to the green for the 24-hour long marathon — Calvin Rodgers, John Wellington, Busselton’s Charlie Joyce and HBC club captain David Goddard.

Having known Ariella since he moved to Harvey nearly four years ago, saying yes to the “‘bowlathon” was an easy task for Mr Goddard.

“Following the success we had last year with Calvin, we thought why not give it a go,” he said.

“When Anthony approached me about doing it again, I think we both had the same idea that we were going to do it for Ariella.

“My daughter’s the same age and just the things (she) tells me about Ariella is enough to want to help.”

The funds raised from the event will go towards the TBC1D24 Foundation, which was started by two mothers in the United States whose children were impacted the condition. Ms Italiano sits on the board of the foundation as an adviser.

She said the foundation was working towards grants to have researchers look into the condition.

“At the moment, there is no treatment, no cure for this and all kids are affected so differently,” Ms Italiano said.

“My goal in my lifetime is to see a treatment for Ariella losing her muscle tone, because that’s the biggest thing that affects her quality of life.”

Ms Italiano said she was grateful to live in a community where her daughter is so supported.

“To have people like Anthony who approaches us for fundraising, we are so lucky we live in a place where people come to us and say ‘what can we do?’ and ‘how can we help?’, she said.

“It is very nice.”

There will be a number of activities on offer besides the lawn bowls action, with silent auctions, raffles, face painting, food and entertainment to make it an event.

More information can be found on the Harvey Bowling Club Facebook page.

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