About Us
VACTERL Support and Awareness was created by Mikela, a high school student from San Jose, California, in 2019 as part of her Gold Award with Girl Scouts. Her Gold Award was designed to raise support and awareness for rare diseases, specifically VACTERL. This site is only one part of her award. Other aspects of her Gold Award include organizing San Jose's First Annual Walk for Rare Diseases and donating to hospital waiting rooms.
About Mikela
My name is Mikela, and I created this site. When I was trying to come up with ideas for my Gold Award, I knew that I wanted to do something to help raise awareness for rare diseases.
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Why? Because I have VActerL.
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I was born with three of the six characteristics of VACTERL. I have been passionate about raising awareness for VACTERL since I realized that no one knows what VACTERL (so far, I have met two people who knew what VACTERL was before I mentioned it).
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If you have VACTERL, I hope this site can help you realize that you aren't alone. I hope that you'll be able to get into contact with other people that get it.
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If you are a caregiver or parent of someone with VACTERL, I hope this site gives you some answers about what VACTERL is.
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If you don't have VACTERL, I hope you take some of this information to heart and take the time to help educate others.
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Thank you, and I hope you enjoy!