Mia Celebrates a Milestone, her 10th Birthday

14th August, 2019

Today is a very special day for our family and especially for our beautiful girl Mia, who celebrates her 10th Birthday.

It's also a significant milestone as Mia has had a very difficult start to life and originally wasn't meant to survive birth.

As a family we've had to deal with many serious medical issues throughout Mia's life, and we are so very grateful to Cathy O'Leary, the previous medical reporter of the West Australian Newspaper and Natalie Bonjolo of Channel 7 Perth for their stories and support regarding Mia, the medical mistakes that occurred to our family, to our public campaign/ awareness to Australian women on the dangers of Category D and X drugs and the problems they cause to the mother and child during pregnancy.

Community Service and the Lions Club of Whitford has been a large part of our lives and even though Mia's faced her own issues, she's always been there with her mum, dad, brother and sister and fellow club members helping our club and our community whenever needed. We're all so very proud of Mia for her commitment and community service, even when she's not been well herself.

Our club and Past District Governor Jack LeCras OAM refers to Mia as "the extractor" as she looks after our raffles, and continuously raises money for those less fortunate and in need in our community.

Lions Club International and my association as a delegate at the United Nations (both New York & Geneva) and with the World Health Organisation (WHO) has also been significant, and hence why we have been tireless advocates of the WHO "Know your Medicines campaign."

As a family we are truly blessed and thank God each and every day for our miracle girl, who's fought against the odds, and only last week, we got the best news imaginable as doctors reported her kidneys are again growing and the damage she's suffered from the terrible medical mistakes to Terri and Mia 10 years ago is beginning to improve, albeit slowly. We're not there yet as there's still many complications, issues and challenges ahead that we still face, but we'll take this fantastic news.

This morning Mia was very excited to receive her present (bike), again a milestone due to medical issues, and her party is being held on Saturday with her friends.

So, to our beautiful girl happy birthday sweetheart. You truly are our miracle, and not only we, but our Lions community, family and friends all love you so very much.

Philip & Terri Couper