Having a daughter with Kearns-Sayre Syndrome diagnose at age 16 at a time in her life when she was a perfectly healthy and beautuful cheer-leader in high school and also competeing in gymnastics, watching her slowly deteriate over the years but still became a coach at her high school and even teaching gymnastics to small children she has gone through 5 surgeries on her eyes and one on her throat to enable to speak and swallow she is continuing to show muscle weakness. To think as her mother I gave her that gene is times unbearable.We spent a month the NIH where she underwent brutal tests.Her corneas are ruined because of the inability to close her eyelids to protect them.She will hopefully be a candidate for a cornea transplant. I urge the government to continue the funding for research of mitochondrial diseases so no other families have to go through this heartbreaking experience.....Thank you