CANTON — Victoria Elizabeth Williams appears to be the typical kid.

The 9-year-old enjoys running around outside and watching television.

“Everything looks normal. You can’t tell anything is wrong with her,” said her mother, Corey Lowe-Williams.

But Victoria was born with mitochondrial disease, a condition that affects how the body creates growth and life-sustaining energy.

Because of the disease, Victoria can’t talk and suffers several seizures a day.

“Usually, children with mitochondrial disease aren’t expected to live very long,” Lowe-Williams said. “The doctors told me not to worry about quantity of life but quality of life. That’s hard to hear, but that’s what we’re trying to do for Victoria — improve her quality of life.”

Since the seizures come with no warning and Victoria cannot communicate verbally, she needs near constant contact.

Therefore, Lowe-Williams is striving to get her daughter more assistance through the help of man’s best friend.

Lowe-Williams is raising money to purchase her daughter a seizure dog.

“The seizures are pretty intense,” she said. “The dog can sense and is trained to detect when they are about to happen. Then it will bark and alert me.”

The dog will also serve as a type of GPS, keeping tabs on Victoria’s whereabouts.

“She loves her freedom,” Lowe-Williams said. “She’s big enough now where she can unlock the door and run outside.”

The dog will come from Ohio-based 4 Paws for Ability and comes with a $26,000 price tag.

The family is only responsible for half the cost, $13,000.

So Lowe-Williams, a Clarkston police officer who recently moved to Canton from DeKalb County, is trying to organize a fundraiser to help cover the expense.

But donations have begun rolling in well before a benefit could be put together.

Through the networking website Facebook, more than $6,000 has already been raised.

“There are people I don’t even know who are helping me out,” Lowe-Williams said. “Being a police officer, I see the worst of the worst. This has renewed my faith in human kind.”

Once the funds are raised, the family will have to travel to Ohio to spend two weeks training and learning how to work with the service animals.

Mitochondrial disease has no cure, so doctors can only treat the symptoms.

Lowe-Williams said Victoria has undergone every seizure treatment available in the United States and some not available in the U.S. market.

“Victoria has been on nine different seizure controlling medications, some illegal in the United States because of potential side effects. We had to go to Canada to get them,” she said. “It seems like nothing has worked.”

Victoria also has a Vagal Nerve Stimulator, a device implanted in her chest that stimulates a distinctive nerve when it comes in contact with a magnet, which helps lesson the severity of the seizure.