Justin’s Story

Taking on a diagnosis of your child with such a rare disease is definitely hard.

My name is Andrew. My wife is named Amanda.

In December of 2010, our son Justin was born in Bel Air, Maryland. He was such a chill child. Never really fussed. He just took everything in. He is a gearhead, very into animatronics and wants to know more and more about it.

We noticed one Halloween night while my wife was walking with him that his leg went into a cramp. I thought it was a Charley horse.

My wife, being a nurse, said, I think it's more than that. 

He kept telling me his leg was hurting. I looked down at his leg and it was three times the normal size it should have been.

I remember sitting in there staring at Justin's leg, and I'm like, Duchenne muscular dystrophy. 

Any muscular dystrophies… they are life altering, devastating. It's something that takes a lot of time to grasp. Knowing that your child has this and your whole life is changed.

Justin's response to this is: he's not going to give up. He has a really good outlook, and he knows that having a diagnosis doesn't define you, and that he can do the best that he can with what he's got in life. The medicine has definitely been a game changer for him with his confidence. 

Having Anovo as a team player with Justin’s health has been a huge help. It takes a lot of the burden off me having to make phone calls, make sure that I have his medicine in time.

So then enters Anovo and we were able to get this medication. We had a personal care coordinator who would call us and say, “hey, how's everything going? Justin, is there any problems?”

She knows me. She knows my name.
She knows Justin. And she's like, “well, how is he doing in school?” And “is he getting stronger? How's physical therapy?” and even talks about my daughter. I'm like, “yeah, my daughter with her softball.” They remember us and I like it.

They communicate with each other and then they communicate well with me. 

They really care about if he's having any side effects. They care about what he's doing. 
The lady, even, she sounded like she was crying on the phone. She says, “I am so happy for you guys.” And she shared my joy with me and I loved it.

Anovo has it right to my front door. Every time that it's due. Anovo is completely different. They respond. They call us.

Me and my husband, we were on like a group call and they, they told us, “Don't worry. We will, we will work with the insurance. We will talk. We will try to get everything taken care of.”

I definitely feel like we're getting a personal connection with Anovo.

They reach out and make sure my son is getting the best quality of everything that they offer.

I would 100% recommend Anovo because they have taken the burden off of me having to worry about the financial aspects.

Having Anovo as a team player in Justin’s health has been a huge help.

To see him light up… it puts a smile on your face. It just brings back a lot of raw emotion
to bring back all the accomplishments that he's able to do for himself now.

Thank you for helping me get stronger. It makes me feel much happier.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart.