Actors Nicole Ari Parker-Kodjoe and Boris Kodjoe held a special “Cocktails with a Cause” for their daughter Sophie Kodjoe,4, yesterday( September 14, 2009). The special event benefited the Sophie’s voice foundation, an organization founded in honor of Sophie who was diagnosed with spina bifida at birth.
All proceeds raised at the “cocktail cause” went towards the organization’s first research project – a surgical trial which has the potential to change the lives of children and adults with spina bifida.
Spina Bifida is a developmental birth defect involving the neural tube: incomplete closure of the embryonic neural tube results in an incompletely formed spinal cord. In addition, the vertebrae overlying the open portion of the spinal cord do not fully form and remain unfused and open. This allows the abnormal portion of the spinal cord to stick out through the opening in the bones.
