Helping with Ketogenic therapies for Epileptic Children

I was driving back from Wellington to the Wairarapa and as normal was listening to Radio New Zealand (RNZ). The program cut to a story about Ketogenic therapy and its usage in treating Epilepsy, focussed on NZ children.

From the story I learned that while the therapy had great results, it was very expensive and not funded by every NZ DHB. I also learned that the South Island Service Lead (Charlene -Dietitian) lost a patient to refractory epilepsy before medicalised ketogenic therapy was made available. Great successes have been made since the establishment of the service. And Charlene very eloquently explained why the treatment is important and will save lives.

It is a science that requires 24/7/365 monitoring, for growing kids a balanced diet is always recommended. Juxtapose that with the need to reduce the medication applied to a child to reduce seizures, Charlene’s example was reducing seizures from 60 per day to 30 after 7 days of Ketogenic therapy. And while “Keto” is in the news because of CrossFitters, Health Faddists and general media, this medicalised form of therapy is more intensive - instead of a macro split of 70:20:10 (Fat:Protein:Carbs), to effect change on Epilepsy the target for children is as a high as 90:10 (Fat:Protein+Carbs). https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/438753/therapeutic-keto-diet-used-to-treat-epilepsy-calls-for-more-funding

In a country of 5 million people I find it difficult to understand how we have so much of a split between haves and have nots. With a progressive government, like we have currently, we are still failing in Health, well-being, poverty, education. And we are failing when we are not enabling families to access help for their epileptic children.

So… What to do? Well, two things. The first is to raise some money. The second is to invest the money so that it pays for ongoing access to help. In recent times I have been talking with people who are experts in the DEFI space. I know that I can invest the money raised and create enough yield to pay for services. The amount raised, correlates to the yield which correlates to the amount of services that can be paid for. The amount raised becomes a deposit, which is stored for some time and pays for the services.

What is DEFI? Decentralized finance (commonly referred to as DeFi) is a blockchain-based form of finance that does not rely on central financial intermediaries such as brokerages, exchanges, or banks to offer traditional financial instruments, and instead utilizes smart contracts on blockchains. Why DEFI? DeFi provides yields that are 10x greater than traditional investments with a similar risk profile. Using DEFI to raise yield to pay for services, will enable others to see the benefits of DEFI and enable inclusion to deliver better social and economic outcomes than what might be possible with Traditional Finance.

The money raising… I am going to run my first half marathon on my 53rd birthday, I am going to seek sponsorship from friends, colleagues and anyone else across the world. My target is $33000. The $33k will be invested in a high yield online savings account with Anchor on Terra https://app.anchorprotocol.com/earn. I have a conservative target of 16.6% APR (18%APY) which will allow for $500 to be drawn down each month to fund Ketogenic therapies.