Gord and Erin Hope

In August, 1954, Gordon F. K. Hope was born - the second son to a military family - in Red Deer, Alberta. In February, 1956, as military families do, the Hope lot moved - east to Trenton Ontario. Shortly after that move Gord's parents took note of strange movements and other peculiarities in both of his eyeballs, and sought medical investigation. Unable to determine a cause, but concerned that the situation was significant, Doctors at the Hospital for Sick Children, in Toronto, removed one eye in May, 1956, in order to perform a biopsy on it. Their investigation revealed the presence of blastoma tumours on the Retina, and the second eye, seeming to be affected as well, was removed the following week.

Gord's parents were brave folks; raising him as one of five boys, they resolved from an early point that, inasmuch as possible, he should be allowed and encouraged to be as active as his fully sighted brothers. From a young age, therefore, he was physically active, including, as a teen-ager, taking part in high school wrestling. Gord's parents were also forthcoming, making sure that he was fully aware of the 50-percent likelihood that any of his children would be born with RB, since he was affected bilaterally.

As a young adult Gord continued to take part in sports, both as a competitor and as an organizer. As well, blessed with his parents' smarts, Gord completed university studies to the PhD level in Social Psychology at Carleton University, in 1989, and to the awarding of a Post-Doctoral diploma in Professional Psychology from the University of Ottawa, in 1990.

After the two of us were married in May, 1987 (co-incidentally 31 years to the day after the removal of Gord's first eye), we were counselled by an ophthalmologist to never have children! In February of 1988 our first daughter, Michelle, was born. While pregnant with this first wonder, we were put in contact with Dr. Brenda Gallie's lab in Toronto. We were advised that they would like samples of baby blood from the umbilical cord when the baby was born, to assist with ground-breaking genetic research. Erin went into the delivery room trying to gasp out between contractions that the delivery team needed to take this all important sample. Dr. Bill Britton - a Paediatric Ophthalmologist - checked Michelle's eyes thoroughly within hours of her birth, and every two to three months thereafter for a year, as well as regularly over the next several years with alternating exams being EUA's. Dr. Britton found no evidence of blastoma tumours. In June of 1992 our second daughter, Kathleen, was born, and she underwent a similar regimen of investigation of her eyes by Dr. Britton for the first 2 years. Again, no evidence of tumours was found. We began to hope in what seemed to be a miracle: two children, and an improving likelihood that neither had inherited the retinoblastoma which had blinded their dad.

Soon we were expecting our third child, and in March of 1994 Christina joined our family. She, too, underwent the initial rigorous eye examinations by Dr. Britton, but her cord blood sample was already at Dr. Gallie's lab. It was about that time that we were notified of a further miracle: Dr. Brenda Gallie's laboratory had identified the genetic mutation responsible for RB!! Blood samples were gathered from our three girls and Gord, and sent to Dr. Gallie's lab. With excitement and fear we awaited the results of the lab's work on our behalf. Before long we were informed that none of our girls had inherited even the responsible genetic mutation, let alone RB itself - A Miracle, Indeed!!

Statistical probabilities indicate that the chances would be no higher than one-in-eight that none of our three children would carry the RB genetic mutation; yet, this is the blessing that our family lives with - a seeming miracle!!; and the advances made in Dr. Gallie's laboratory helped us to be sure of this as soon as we could have been! A further interesting point - as if to highlight the possibility of divine intervention: although Erin has brown eyes, which should have been dominant in determining the colour of our girls' eyes, each of them ended up with the blue eyes Gord would have had had he not been stricken with RB.

There is no doubt that what has befallen our family is extreme good fortune. However, it is also very heart-warming to the two of us to know that those same advances made in Dr. Gallie's lab allow for the speedy discovery or confirmation of RB and the genetic mutation, so that expedient decisions and actions can be taken to save the eyes, facial structures, and lives of more babies inheriting the RB disorder.