BELTON (January 27, 2010)--Imagine slowly losing the ability to walk or even control the way your body moves.

Those are just a few of the daily challenges facing two-and-a-half-year-old Logan Parker of Belton, who has an extremely rare and debilitating genetic neurological disorder called Pelizaeus-Merzbacher disease.

"He was recently diagnosed,” said his mother Doris Parker.

“It's a neurodegenerative tissue disorder that gets misdiagnosed as cerebral palsy," she said.

According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Pelizaeus-Merzbacher disease or PMD is a progressive disorder that cause the central nervous system to deteriorate and that is usually deadly.

In children like Logan, it affects coordination, motor skills, and intellectual ability.

Logan can't walk and must use a special standing wheelchair to move around.

"There's only about 500 to 1,000 cases known worldwide with this disease,” his mother said.

There is no cure and in fact no standardized treatment for the few people who have been diagnosed with the disease, although those with milder forms may live normal lives.

On Feb. 27, Doris and others are holding a fundraiser both to increase awareness of the disease and to raise money to support efforts to find treatments and ultimately a cure.

"I would just like for people to have the knowledge that PMD is out there,” she said.

“It’s rare but it's everywhere,” she said.

The cost of caring for Logan is about $20,000 a year, but despite the challenges, Doris says she wouldn’t change a thing about her son.

"A special needs child just comes with extra love and happiness...just as any other child does,” she said.

The fundraiser begins at noon on Feb. 27 at Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 10377 in Belton near the Bell County Expo Center.