BASEHOR, Kan. — Danny Brooks looks like a typical 4-year-old.
After spending nearly two hours with him, he showed KSHB 41's Alyssa Jackson he had plenty of energy to go around.
VOICE FOR EVERYONE | Share your voice with KSHB 41’s Alyssa Jackson
Except, Danny's life isn't anything like what an average 4-year-old has to deal with.
"Degenerate Muscle Disease (DMD), [it] breaks down your muscles, your heart and lungs," said Katie Brooks, Danny's mother.
Seven hospitalizations later, his parents found out this is why his tiny body was in pain so often.
"Heartbreaking. 30 years ago, they told people to go home and hug their children because they don’t survive this," Brooks said. "Thinking your child won’t live past 18 is absolutely devastating."
They were losing hope until Danny became the first child in Kansas City to receive a new gene therapy procedure to treat his condition.
"To have something so incredibly manufactured in such an incredible time in his life was surreal for us," Brooks said.
What's even more shocking for all of them is seeing they are not alone.
A parade of hundreds of friends, family and strangers showed up for Danny. It started with a Facebook post.
"I don’t know Danny," a man who drove in from Lawrence said. "I have three children of my own and if my child was like that, I would hope we’d have support in that situation."
In times like this, when Danny isn’t aware of how different his life is, he has a village making sure that being four years old is all he has to worry about.
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