"If he dies, I’ll be really sad," Sophia Sarkar, 8, said of her younger brother, Carter.
An 8-year-old girl from California is pleading for help in saving her younger brother, who suffers from childhood Alzheimer’s.
“I just need them to help Carter because he’s really special to me,” Sophia Sarkar, 8, said in a video shared by her family. "He’s, like, fragile. If he dies, I’ll be really sad."
Carter Sarkar, 6, was diagnosed in 2016 with Sanfilippo syndrome — a rare disease that has no cure, and causes side effects like seizures and losing the ability to walk.
“We’ll be at a favorite place of his where he's playing or something and he'll just look up and he'll have this immediate look of lost on his face, like he has no idea how we got there," his mom, Jennifer Sarkar, told InsideEdition.com. "It’s unbelievably heartbreaking because he’s crying, he’s really confused, and I’m crying because I know this is Sanfilippo taking over.”
Since going viral last year while celebrating his May birthday by trick-or-treating, Jennifer said Carter’s condition has worsened. They began experiencing the Alzheimer’s like symptoms last November, and the episodes happen once every few weeks.
The painful symptoms are only expected to deteriorate further, and children diagnosed with the rare disease typically only live up to their mid- or late teenage years.
Carter’s family is now trying to raise money for a clinical trial, funded by the Cure Sanfilippo Foundation, which they believe may cure his condition.
But with just days left from their deadline and hundreds of thousands of dollars away from their goal, 8-year-old Sophia decided to share why giving her brother a chance at life was so important to her.
“He’s fun to play with. He does amazing stuff with me,” Sophia told InsideEdition.com. “I don’t want Carter to be in the hospital that much.”
While Jennifer explained her family is now closer than ever as they cope with Carter's condition, and they have not yet given up hope of a cure.
“It’s definitely taught us to really focus on the silver lining in everything," Jennifer said. “We truly live by Carter’s motto, which is, ‘Live today, hope for tomorrow.'"
To support the family in ending childhood Alzheimer's, visit the GoFundMe page.
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