BRAVE BOYS LIGHT UP CITY
KINGS Meadows brothers Harry and Tommy Colgrave are like any other teenagers.
They go to school, play video games, Harry goes to the pub with his dad, Brent, a teacher at Launceston Church Grammar School, while Tommy looks after his half-adozen chooks.
The only way they are different from the rest of us? The Colgrave boys were born with fragile X syndrome, caused by a mutation of the FMR1 gene and the leading cause of inherited intellectual disability. However, if you were to be born with fragile X, there was nowhere in the world you would rather be than Launceston, Mr Colgrave said.
“My boys wouldn’t be anywhere near where they are today without the wider community, they have access to so many things I couldn’t have done myself with them,” he said.
Mr Colgrave shared several examples of ways Launceston, a founding partner in the Light up Australia campaign commemorating World Fragile X Day on Friday, had gone above and beyond to include Harry and Tommy.
Grammar’s Fraser House – Mr Colgrave’s house – has nominated fragile X as its 2022 charitable cause and Harry, who attended the school from year 7–10, has snagged an invite to its upcoming ball.
He was also invited to train with Mowbray Cricket Club and was a part of its pennant-winning fourth XI.
Tommy, meanwhile, has a burgeoning gardening business, with multiple residents in the neighbourhood signing themselves up for visits from the fledgling green thumb.
While the community has gone above and beyond for the Colgraves, the boys’ father feted his kids for their “bravery” in attending myriad speech and occupational therapy, dental and medical appointments with grace and good humour.
About 80 landmarks around Australia, including Launceston’s Town Hall and Chalmers Church, as well as buildings in Hobart and Devonport, will be lit orange on Friday night to raise awareness for the condition.
Fragile X Association of Australia executive director Wendy Bruce said awareness was key, as “diagnosis is frequently missed or delayed in what is often a diagnostic odyssey, leading to delayed interventions and poorer life outcomes”.