{"id":580991,"date":"2026-04-02T15:46:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T15:46:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/580991\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T15:46:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T15:46:23","slug":"jordan-ablett-shares-update-on-health-of-son-levi-gary-ablett-good-friday-appeal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/580991\/","title":{"rendered":"Jordan Ablett shares update on health of son Levi, Gary Ablett, Good Friday Appeal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jordan Ablett has provided a heartwarming update on the condition of her son, Levi.<\/p>\n<p>The wife of Geelong legend Gary Ablett has told the <a class=\"body-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.heraldsun.com.au\/news\/good-friday-appeal\/gary-ablett-jrs-wife-on-son-levis-condition-six-years-after-diagnosis\/news-story\/7556f640ab49a83116e8485ca3e4d224\" target=\"_blank\" data-tgev=\"event119\" data-tgev-container=\"bodylink\" data-tgev-order=\"7556f640ab49a83116e8485ca3e4d224\" data-tgev-label=\"news\" data-tgev-metric=\"ev\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Herald Sun <\/a>that the youngster is \u201cdoing great\u201d and that despite his condition he\u2019s \u201cnever lost his big smile\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The couple had previously kept some details of Levi\u2019s condition secret, sharing only that their brave son suffers from a rare degenerative illness.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"body-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.news.com.au\/sport\/afl\/shocking-levi-abletts-condition-revealed-after-six-years\/news-story\/e87b9bc5cb7b3684e089bbe4f21bd19d\" target=\"_blank\" data-tgev=\"event119\" data-tgev-container=\"bodylink\" data-tgev-order=\"e87b9bc5cb7b3684e089bbe4f21bd19d\" data-tgev-label=\"sport\" data-tgev-metric=\"ev\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Last year they revealed their son has a rare condition called Menkes<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The degenerative illness affects Levi\u2019s respiratory system and devastatingly results in a shorter life expectancy.<\/p>\n<p>Those with Menkes struggle to absorb copper, an essential mineral for the human body. Those that live with low copper levels in their system can face a number of deficiencies, including neurological function.<\/p>\n<p>It is unlikely Levi will ever speak and the couple made the difficult decision to not send him to school while they continue to care for him.<\/p>\n<p>But on the eve of the Royal Children\u2019s Hospital Good Friday Appeal, Jordan shared images of the family while talking about their lives.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s doing great,\u2019\u2019 Jordan told the <a class=\"body-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.heraldsun.com.au\/news\/good-friday-appeal\/gary-ablett-jrs-wife-on-son-levis-condition-six-years-after-diagnosis\/news-story\/7556f640ab49a83116e8485ca3e4d224\" target=\"_blank\" data-tgev=\"event119\" data-tgev-container=\"bodylink\" data-tgev-order=\"7556f640ab49a83116e8485ca3e4d224\" data-tgev-label=\"news\" data-tgev-metric=\"ev\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Herald Sun<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe turned seven at the beginning of the year which I\u2019m still trying to get my head around. There haven\u2019t been significant changes and he still requires the same level of care.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThankfully though Levi has never lost his big smile and is still showing us how to be present and live in the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jordan revealed that they now require less trips to the Royal Childen\u2019s Hospital, but they still have scheduled appointments with specialists.<\/p>\n<p>The couple are \u201cgoing really well\u201d as they continue to care for Levi while also having two other growing kids in daughter Grace and son Ezra.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"poster-img\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0d8a1de57346b1f528f7b31c45518baa.jpeg\" data-sctrack=\"op-poster-img\" alt=\"Gary Ablett shares special moment with little Levi\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Levi was diagnosed in May 2020, with Jordan stating it wasn\u2019t until last year when she was able to process everything to a point where she is comfortable talking about Menkes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI always knew deep down that I would eventually be open and transparent about it. I don\u2019t know what good can possibly come from not being that.\u201d Ablett said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI didn\u2019t want people to misinterpret me holding onto that information as being ashamed of Levi. It was purely a matter of me just trying and needing to process it all first myself. I knew that once I could do that, I\u2019d be in a position where I could then offer encouragement and hope to others through our journey.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jordan is an ambassador for the Good Friday Appeal and is encouraging everyone to get on board and support the cause.<\/p>\n<p>To donate to the Good Friday Appeal, click <a class=\"body-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.goodfridayappeal.com.au\/donate\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">goodfridayappeal.com.au<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Originally published as <a class=\"body-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.news.com.au\/sport\/afl\/jordan-ablett-provides-update-on-health-of-son-levi-ahead-of-good-friday-appeal\/news-story\/a3ee00a4bbba94aab5dff387a62b70bc\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jordan Ablett provides update on health of son Levi ahead of Good Friday Appeal<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jordan Ablett has provided a heartwarming update on the condition of her son, Levi. The wife of Geelong&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":580992,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-580991","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}