One of the stories I never tire of telling is about Evie Vaccaro. She’s the little girl who was born with a fatal immune condition called severe combined immunodeficiency or SCID. Children with this condition have no immune system, no protection against infections, and often die in the first two years of life. But thanks to a stem cell therapy Evie was cured.

Evie is now five years old. A happy, healthy and, as we discovered last week, a very energetic kid. That’s because Evie and her family came to CIRM to celebrate the launch of Don Reed’s new book, “California Cures! How the California Stem Cell Program is Fighting Your Incurable Disease”.

Don Reed with Alysia and Evie Vaccaro – Photo courtesy Yimy Villa

Don’s book is terrific – well, it’s about CIRM so I might be biased – but Evie stole the show, and the hearts of everyone there.

KTVU, the local Fox News TV station, did a couple of stories about Evie. Here’s one of them.

We will have more on Don Reed’s book later this week.