Becky Quick, co-anchor of CNBC’s “Squawk Box”, opened up about her 6-year-old daughter’s rare genetic disorder as the network launches “CNBC Cures.”
Becky Quick’s Daughter’s SYNGAP1 Diagnosis
Quick explained that her daughter, Kaylie, began showing signs within her first year.
“I would say that it was probably around 8 months when I realized she wasn’t hitting her milestones,” Quick tells People in an interview published Thursday, January 8. “Sometimes her eyes would cross. You just kind of know as a mom that there’s something going on.”
After years of therapy, learning how to roll over and walk, doctors discovered Kaylie was also experiencing subclinical seizures. According to Cedars-Sinai, subclinical seizures are characterized as “unusual electrical activity” in which patients do not show any symptoms.
She was ultimately diagnosed with SYNGAP1 just before her third birthday.
“It was de novo, a genetic disease, which means that basically one letter in her DNA was off at birth, and it didn’t come from either me or my husband,” Quick told People. “It just happens sometimes at conception.”
The “On the Money” anchor recalled being “pretty devastating” after receiving her daughter’s diagnosis.
“Our family was our biggest support. Our parents, our siblings,” she explained. “But at the same time, because of my public role on TV, it wasn’t something that I really talked about at work. I had to go to work and kind of shut that part off because it was just so…anything with your kids, you’re so emotional, so caught up in it.”
Quick and CNBC Are Raising Awareness
The mother of two—who also shares a 14-year-old son with husband Matt Quayle—and CNBC are raising awareness for Kaylie and the 30 million other Americans living with rare diseases.
“I think it’s kind of universal from other parents I’ve talked to, either who have kids with this disease or other diseases. You end up kind of blaming yourself,” Quick told People on Thursday. “You sort of think, ‘Was it because I was drinking decaf coffee when I was pregnant? Is it because I kept coloring my hair?'”
According to CNBC, “about one in 10 people in the U.S. has a rare disease.”
“That’s why we’re launching CNBC Cures, a new initiative to help raise awareness of rare diseases and improve patient outcomes for people living with them,” the network announced on Thursday. “The initiative’s goal is to help build a community that can break down barriers that can limit treatment options and isolate those living with a rare disease. Through our storytelling and live events, we’ll work to identify the most innovative scientific developments in the rare disease space and put a spotlight on the bottlenecks preventing them from getting to the patients who need them.”
