An Online Campaign for a 3-year-old Amputee Gets President Obama’s Attention

[Sarah Willey]

One man’s plight to raise money for a 3-year-old boy from Wales who had his legs amputated after contracting meningococcal septicemia has caught the attention of the White House.  While attending a ceremony to accept the White House Photographer of the Year award, Dai Baker nearly got thrown out of for taking a picture of his own hand – which read “For Luca.”

 

At that moment, the Secret Service didn’t know the back story on the photo. All they knew is that Baker had taken an unauthorized photo of the President and posted to Twitter. The truth is - Baker was simply trying to help Luca’s parents raise money to buy the little boy prosthetic legs. They had launched the “Raise your Hands for Luca” campaign last month, asking people, just like Baker, to write “For Luca” on their hand and share the pictures through Facebook and Twitter.

 

So far, Luca's Facebook page has attracted more than 12,000 followers, and celebrities including F1 driver Mark Webber and England cricketer Stuart Broad have posted images. And because of Baker, the President of the United States has now joined the campaign. 

You can learn more about the campaign by visiting  justgiving.com/forluca and for more information visit For Luca page on Facebook or follow @for_luca on Twitter. If you’d like to learn more about sepsis – follow @AboutSepsis or visit About Sepsis on Facebook (client).