Michiana couple fights genetic disorder that claimed their son

A local husband and wife have taken a tragedy and turned it into a passion.

Dana Hollar and his wife Dawn lost their son Brad nearly five years ago from a genetic disorder called factor V Leiden. They decided to take the tragedy and turn it into a passion for blood clotting research. They teamed up with the University of Notre Dame to do the research.

Dana then started a non-profit called the Bradley Five Charitable Fund Inc., raising thousands of dollars in just a few months.

"For us to even have the opportunity to connect with Notre Dame and for them to support our cause of what we're doing, be generous enough for us to participate in fundraising, and just the whole scheme of how it's happened, we're blessed,” said Dana.

Dana and his family will be presenting a check for $15,000 to the university Monday morning.

They say they want to help anyone else who has factor V Leiden.

The charity is two fold, one part to help fund the research and the other to support education. It's called Planting the SEED for Education. This part will help to invest in students in first grade to help them start college savings accounts.

"When they get a chance to graduate from high school and go on to college, that money that we started for them hopefully is added to by parents, future fund raisin that we do so that it grows to the opportunity to graduate from college," Dana said.

You can find more information about the non-profit by following this link: