A pasta fundraiser to help a Windsor baby with a rare genetic disorder was so successful, it had to turn people away because it ran out of food.
On Saturday, 840 people showed up at the Parkwood Gospel Temple to help the family of eight-month-old Madalayna Ducharme who has Malignant Infantile Osteopetrosis.
The disorder attacks the vision, hearing and is life threatening unless a matching bone marrow is found.
The match was found in Madalayna's brother and Madalayna had the transplant back on March 17th.
The fundraiser was held to help the family with expenses since they will be in Toronto as Madalayna recovers.
"We had sold close to 500 tickets but of course we weren't expecting 500 people to come, as a matter of fact we had to stop selling tickets at the door,at the end we had to turn some people away because we had no more food," said family friend Nicole Ramage who helped to organize the event.
"I stopped a couple of times and just looked around and thought WOW," says Ramage. "I want to mention Tamara's mother Gloria who worked 9 hours a day every day for over a month."
Ramage says the family would like to keep the amount raised confidential but she said it was amazing.
Meanwhile, Madalayna's mother Tamara says Madalayna is holding steady. She says they are waiting for her "counts" to go up. They haven't dropped but they haven't increased either. The number count increasing indicates her body is accepting the bone marrow and starting to work.
She says right now, Madalayna is dealing with a built-up of mucus.
"It is not a fun thing, muciositus is awful, she can't get it out like a normal person because she is a seven month old so she can't cough it out," says Ducharme. "She gets sick a lot, we have had a couple of really rough days, but she is starting to smile again and play again, so that's why I hope she is turning a corner."
The next two weeks are critical for Madalayna to see if her body accepts the bone marrow.