Kid Captain Blayke Rosenthal

Age: 7
Hometown: Tarzana, CA
Game: UCLA vs. Monmouth
View game photos 

Most people who meet seven-year-old Blayke are amazed and inspired by her bright personality and positive life outlook. With a contagious passion for music, dance and fashion, Blayke is always willing to kick off a group sing-along to her favorite Annie tunes or offer up advice on the latest fashion trends – even when she’s in the middle of days-long testing and treatment.

In February of 2015, Blayke was diagnosed at UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital with Autoimmune Epilepsy, a rare autoimmune disease that causes epileptic seizures. Her condition is so rare that her doctors have only encountered three cases in the past 40 years.

“I was super brave, very brave,” Blake says, throwing her arms up in a show of strength.

With an official diagnosis and treatment plan, Blayke now visits UCLA’s pediatric infusion center every four weeks for an intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) infusion, additional seizure medication and blood testing.

“Just the stuff that she’s gone through … treatments, in and out of the hospital, being hooked up to machines, I mean it’s amazing,” Blayke’s father Howard says. “And we can’t wait, once this is all behind us, to see what’s down the road for her.”