Lulu was being photographed in 2018 for Stephanie's book on the positive experiences of Illawarra's Down Syndrome community.

It turns out the women had heart-breakingly similar stories to tell after learning of their children's diagnoses - Jade six weeks after Lulu's birth and Stephanie 12 weeks into her pregnancy.

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"They gave us a folder with a DVD from the 80s," Jade explained. "After you read and watched it ... you felt worse."

Stephanie also received a clinical information pack: "That's handed to parents with quite a grim outlook and 'I'm sorry'."

Her immediate reaction was to search for support groups.

"I was racking my brain thinking what's Down Syndrome? Who do I know with Down Syndrome?," Stephanie explained said

The experience motivated her to establish Celebrate T21 - a social enterprise for the Down Syndrome community. It prides itself on "changing the world one chromosome at a time".

"I thought wouldn't it be lovely at the point of diagnosis to actually get handed a book that had beautiful imagery and quotes from families all around Australia with support networks in it that welcomed families," Stephanie said.

That single book soon grew into being part of a hamper. And it's delivery had a long-lasting meaningful effect on Jade.

"You feel alone. You feel like nobody understands," Jade said. "All of a sudden you are gifted with this whole new family of people that kind of become your Down Syndrome family or your T21 family, and it automatically creates a community for you that you can lean on."

Now Celebrate T21 is fundraising for World Down Syndrome Day on March 21 with its "Rock Your Socks" campaign.

Colourful socks, Jade says, suit Lulu's personality perfectly: "Lulu is one of the funniest people I've met and I've met a lot of people in my time.

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"Our lives are definitely more the richer for having her, there's never a dull moment."

The money raised from Rock Your Socks will fund the hampers, postage costs and photo books that families receive for free.

The money raised will also be used to support the infant playgroup and mentoring programs.

You can purchase socks from the Celebrate T21 website. The school or business which sells the most socks will win a photography and video package worth $6000.

Celebrate T21 is a national organisation based in Unanderra which provides support to families within the Down Syndrome community.

The Unanderra venue opened in November 2022 and recently started an infant playgroup with visiting therapists and mentoring programs.

Stephanie Rodden, a teacher at Unanderra Public School, is the organisation's founder. She is taking leave this year to focus on Celebrate T21's Unanderra venue and supporting the community.

"We all band together to help one another because we all know what it was like receiving the diagnosis whether that was prenatal or postnatal, and for most of us we don't want anybody to feel like there isn't anybody for them out there, and then they're not connected," Mrs Rodden said.

"We want them to know that you know we're here we've got your back whatever point of the journey that you're along. You know we'll welcome to this Celebrate T21 family."

That community includes a growing hub of people from the Illawarra, the Mt Keira resident said.

"We've even had families that have told us that they've moved to the Illawarra because they've heard that living as a parent of a child with Down Syndrome is a great place for that," she said.

Trisomy 21, also known as T21, is the medical term for Down Sydrome, which means there are three copies of the 21st chromosome.

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