It's World Mitochondrial Disease Week from 18th-24th September, a week of educating and increasing awareness about mitochondrial disease around the world.
To help you join in the fun, we've put together lots of exciting facts and fun puzzles all about mitochondria. So get involved and start spreading the word!
Did you know?
Your body contains about 25 thousand trillion mitochondria? How would you write that in numbers?
Mitochondria are the 'batteries' found in every single one of our cells that give them the energy to do their job. In turn that means our bodies work properly. Everything that our bodies do, from staying warm to moving and thinking, needs energy – even just reading this!
When the mitochondria in your body don't work, the cells they power don't work either and so they can't do their job properly. Just like when your phone runs out of batteries. When they stop working in children with mitochondrial disease they might not be able to walk or run. They might not be able to talk or even eat. They might have trouble seeing or hearing.
They are very, very small – you can fit 2000 mitochondria on the head of a pin. But they are also very, very important because without them we wouldn’t to be able to do all the things we do.
Can you find your way out of our mito maze?
If you like finding your way through lots of twists and turns, try your hand at our mito mess and see how quickly you can navigate your way through from one side to the other.
Can you spot the differences below?
How sharp are your eyes? Six things in the pictures below are different – something may be missing or added, or in a different place, or changed in some other way. With good detective work, you should be able to spot them all!
Or have a go at hunting out all the words we've hidden within our wordsearch.
All the words are linked with mitochondria in some way, and they could be in any direction – forwards, backwards, up, down or diagonal. Some of them are quite tricky, so good luck!
Make a mitochondrial character!
Once you've successfully completed all our puzzles, and learnt all about how our mitochondria work, why not have a go at making your own mitochondrial character from our template below? Grab your crayons or felt-tipped pens, you could even add glitter and make your mito man or lady really shine!
We'd love to see your mito character when you've finished, so why not pop over to one of our social channels and share a picture of your creation?
If you'd like to download and print off any of the fun puzzles featured on this page, you can do so here.
