ABN 29 264 591 963
The Luca Miraglia Foundation was established to support Luca Miraglia and other children like him in similar necessitous circumstances. Funds donated to the Foundation will support Luca and others in the areas of:
• Chronic Kidney Disease<
• Neonatal Intensive Care
• Hearing Impairment
• Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Intellectual Disability
The Foundation was established in late 2014 and is a registered not-for-profit charitable organisation and an ATO endorsed Deductible Gift Receipt (DGR) fund. Donations over $2 are tax deductible. Australian Charities and Not for Profit Commission registration details
The Foundation is administered through independent Trustees with a strong community focus, carefully selected to ensure that the Foundation is run successfully.
Aristea Porfiri
Brad Turney
Daniel Minihan
Luca Boris Miraglia’s birth was traumatic. His identical twin brother Alessio died only hours before they were born. Luca spent 6 weeks in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at the Royal Children’s Hospital. He had suffered oxygen deprivation resulting in chronic kidney failure that required dialysis. He had brain damage and experienced constant seizures. After dialysis, a life-threatening infection required toxic antibiotics.
Luca was fed through a naso-gastric tube until he was one year old and vomited almost daily until he was two. He was diagnosed with severe to profound hearing loss at three months old and autism spectrum disorder around his fourth birthday. All his major developmental milestones were delayed.
“Luca was incredibly sick and I can tell you that in the 10 years I’ve been working there, there have been very few babies that I have looked after that have been as sick as Luca.”
– Dr Rod Hunt, Director of Neonatal Medicine at the Royal Children’s Hospital
From this beginning it is hard to believe how far Luca has come. He has achieved milestones feared impossible when he was born. He is fully verbal, with near to full speech range. He integrated into mainstream school and is now attending senior school. He is an active and engaged young man, who after enduring peritoneal dialysis for 15 months when he became a teenager, was given the gift of a live kidney transplant in August 2021. He continues to thrive and embrace all opportunities whilst facing challenges with resilience and a sense of humour.
Luca couldn’t have achieved all this without years of intensive behavioural intervention and medical treatment and support. He has had amazing professionals helping him through each challenge, going above and beyond to give him every opportunity to develop and grow. The difference this makes is why we devote so much time to raising awareness and funds to support these treatments and experts.
Luca the Little Tiger has pounced on life with his fighting spirit. Watch Luca tell his story in his own words:
Each year, we provide a sponsorship to the Royal Children’s Hospital for their Butterfly Ward.
If you are able to spare a few dollars to help us reach our $7500 target we would be most grateful.
Luca’s first six weeks of life in the NICU were fragile. He was very ill and his survival wasn’t guaranteed. He surprised everyone (doctors, nurses, his parents) with how tough he was. One of his doctors nicknamed him Little Tiger because he was such a fighter, and this is the origin of the Fighting Tiger icon in the Foundation’s logo.
In hospital, Luca was given a story book about a little tiger and a butterfly, and so to Luca’s family, the butterfly became Alessio, his identical twin brother. Alessio is always present, watching over Luca and the Foundation.
