‘We can do hard things’: Midlands 9-year-old with rare disease one of three in the world to receive genetic replacement therapy

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) - A 9-year-old from Lexington County will become one of only three people in the world to receive an experimental treatment for a rare condition.

Jack Timmerman is full of life, a lover of music, avid YouTube watcher and a fantastic big brother. He was around six when his parents noticed there might be something wrong with his eyesight.

“He was having a harder time locating things, seeing things, he was feeling for more things, and that led us on a medical journey”, said Ned Timmerman, Jack’s father.

It took over eight months and several doctors for Jack to be diagnosed. It was a disease that his parents, Ned and Jaime, had never heard of before, called Batten’s Disease. It’s a rare and fatal neurological disorder that attacks the nervous system. There are 14 varian