By CHARLES MELTON

Bremerton Patriot

Life hasn’t been easy for 1-year-old Emilee Beck, who has been a fighter ever since she was born at Harrison Medical Center in Silverdale on Jan. 12, 2007.

As she has managed to beat the odds from day one, family friend Jamie Breckel is doing all she can to ensure her friend’s granddaughter will one day be able to blow out the candles on her birthday cake.

“The night before she went home the nurse doing the baby’s care had noticed that the baby’s lips were turning blue,” Breckel said. “She has had several surgeries including open heart surgery when she was 5 months old.”

After the surgeries, Emilee’s parents were told that she had half of her heart missing including her left lower ventricular chamber, Breckel said.

“This has been from birth, there is no real pinpointed reason for the health defects,” she said. “She is missing her bottom left ventricular and due to scarring of the main artery, her left lung is not functioning as it should be.”

While some families might want to know the odds their daughter and granddaughter is facing, Breckel said that question has never been answered.

“We have never been told the odds and really we prefer not to know,” she said. “We also have not been told her odds with this, either.”

Breckel’s coworkers and friends at Safeway on McWilliams Road in East Bremerton have stepped up to do what they can to help the family with the medical expenses and other bills associated with the heartbreaking situation.

“Safeway has donated monies to help start a donation fund. So far we have raised just over $600,” she said. “This was raised from silent auctions, bake sale and book sale.”

All of these fund-raisers will continue through February and donations will be accepted at the East Bremerton Safeway and at Kitsap Credit Union in Silverdale.

Emilee Beck Fund

Kitsap Federal Credit Union in Silverdale

Safeway on McWilliams Road