Community Wears Socks on Their Hands to Support Baby Born with Skin Disease

Courtesy Liz Cadmus(HAUPPAUGE, N.Y.) — In a heartfelt gesture, one high school football team had their community “rocking socks” last week in support of a local baby with a rare skin disorder.

“It’s absolutely amazing,” Liz Cadmus of Hauppauge, New York, told ABC News. “We’re very, very blessed. It makes us believe in the fact that everything happens for a reason. Makenzie, she’s done so much to bring our family together and really to bring the community together.”

Makenzie Cadmus, 6 months, was born with recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (RDEB) — a disease that causes her skin to be very fragile, blister and slough off her body, her mom said.

To ease her pain, Makenzie wears bandages on her hands and feet. Because she had a tendency to throw her bandages off, Cadmus began covering them with socks.

“One of the nurses suggested using socks as retention bandages,” Cadmus said. “So that’s where the socks came from. She was ‘the girl with the socks’ in the ward. It became a fashion statement.”

Mackenzie’s condition is incurable. Her one chance at a cure is an experimental bone transplant procedure to alter her DNA makeup, Cadmus said.

“My husband said, ‘Think about how many people we’ve talked to that have no idea what [RDEB] is,” Cadmus added. “Because they don’t know, there’s not a lot of funding to promote further research and because of that, it affects the ability to find a cure.”

In an effort to raise awareness and medical funds for their daughter, Liz Cadmus and her husband, Nick Cadmus, started an organization called Rock the Socks.

On Sept. 9, the football team at Hauppauge High School hosted a Rock the Socks event, and friends, family and students all wore on their hands socks that were sold at $3 per pair.

The community raised $5,000 to be put toward Makenzie’s medical needs.

Assistant football coach Craig Cardillo told ABC News that his team’s players and staffers hosted the fundraiser after Nick Cadmus shared details of his baby’s illness with them.

“Nick came in two weeks prior to that first game,” Cardillo said. “They were really inspired by how much pain Makenzie is in on a daily basis but can still keep a smile on her face. They went over and told [Nick] they hoped they could get the win for Makenzie and her family.”

The Eagles won 13 to 12 that day.

The Cadmus family is hosting three additional Rock the Socks events this year, including a Socktoberfest in upstate New York.

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