Since the death of their young son Henry, Nicole and Carl Baldry have been building awareness and raising funds to help find a cure for mitochondrial disease. Photo: Supplied.
Ten years ago Nicole and Carl Baldry experienced a loss no parent should have to experience – the loss of their newborn child, Henry.
Only nine days old, Henry died from mitochondrial disease (‘mito’), a genetic and chronic disease that prevents energy from being produced in the body’s cells.
While his life was brief, Henry lives on with Nicole and Carl every day as they push to spread information about mito and help researchers find a cure.
Since 2016, Nicole and Carl have taken part in the Bloody Long Walk. The charity event sees participants walk 35 km across a new city each year, with all money being raised for the Mito Foundation.
Since their first walk, the pair have raised more than $100,000 for the foundation, but in 2026, they’re holding their own special event.
Marking what would have been Henry’s 10th Birthday, Junee will be hosting a birthday party to honour him and raise money for mito.
Nicole said that while she was proud of the work she had done raising money over the past 10 years, she would have given anything to spend more time with her little boy.
“Henry’s story, unfortunately, is only very short,” Nicole said.
“We knew during pregnancy that he had a heart defect, but we’re told that it’s an easy fix, don’t worry about it. If it presents as a problem, we’ll send you to Sydney, and they’ll fix it.
“Once he was born, we were told that heart issues normally take a few days before showing signs, but we only had a few hours.
“We were very quickly whisked from the main maternity ward at Wagga Base down to the intensive care unit in Sydney.
“We got to Sydney with basically no idea what was happening. His heart was not handling itself.
“They were hoping that by fixing his heart, everything else would just kind of settle out, but we couldn’t get his lactic acid levels low enough to make it safe for him to undergo that surgery.
“Four days later in Sydney, we got that level to the right point, so he went in, and he had his surgery, and he died on the table.”
The Baldry Family take part in the Bloody Long Walk fundraising event each year. Photo: Supplied.
Nicole said only days prior to Henry’s death, she and Carl learnt from a specialist that the cause of Henry’s condition was mitochondrial disease.
Upon returning to Wagga, she and Carl decided that that no one should have to go through the pain they experienced.
Since then the pair have taken part in the Bloody Long Walk and have even written a book, Mito Warrior, to spread awareness and raise money to find a cure.
Ahead of Henry’s 10th birthday, Nicole said the Junee community had wrapped their arms around her and her family.
Henry’s 10th Birthday Party will be held on Sunday 29 March. Photo: Supplied.
She said she was proud of her local community and the birthday celebrations would be a bittersweet moment.
“In every aspect, people still talk to me about him,” she said.
“He’s my favourite topic of conversation, because they get to see my other boys grow, but not him. So I’m happy to talk, and if we don’t talk, then how do we break a bit of the taboo around child loss as well?
“We’ve had, we’ve got some incredible friends, and the community itself has backed us 100 per cent through our journey.
“I worked at Junee High School for a long time; I’ve just changed schools this year, but the high school are still supporting me through this as well, in a lot of different ways.
“My eldest son, who was 16 in August, has been growing his hair since March; he’s auctioning off his haircut, and the local hairdresser is getting involved to help with that as well. The support is just incredible.”
Nicole said she was excited to see as many people attend to spread awareness about mito.
“It’s going to be a pretty big day,” she said.
“We’ve got stallholders. We’ve got a silent auction happening that will just run throughout the day and be drawn at the closure. We’ve got three young people doing hair shaves that will be auctioned off.
“We’ve got some kids fun events. I’ve got to send out some invitations shortly to some ‘sponge toss’ victims that will hopefully stand and put their faces in a hole, and have people throw some sponges.
“We’re trying to line up a petting zoo, all these sorts of things. So just all the birthday parties that you know, things that a 10-year-old would enjoy.”
Henry’s 10th Birthday Fundraiser will be held at Memorial Park in Junee on 29 March from 9 am to 2 pm.
