Muscular Dystrophy

·        Muscle wasting conditions, such as muscular dystrophy, affect one in 2000 people throughout the UK. The impact is far more wide reaching, changing the lives of around 150,000 people

·        Most conditions are inherited, they place a huge pressure on all members of the family; parents have to cope not only with an affected child, but also with guilt for other siblings; and children and adults with progressively weakened muscles find their lives irrevocably changed and their life span shortened

·        There are over 60 variants of muscular dystrophy

·        Muscular dystrophy strikes irrespective of age, gender or ethnic background

·        Sometimes mild symptoms only begin to show in adulthood; sometimes children are so severely affected from birth, they do not have long to live

·        Muscular Dystrophy affects the muscles in many ways. Some people struggle to turn the pages of a book. Others find it difficult to smile because of damage to the muscles in their face. Some will die because their lungs can no longer function or their heart can no longer beat

·        Many parents will outlive their children

·        The most common and virulent form of muscular dystrophy in children is called Duchenne. Duchenne is genetically inherited from mother to son, and, increasingly, is appearing out of the blue with no prior history of the condition in the family

·        Duchenne will put a child in a wheelchair by the average age of 11 and limit his life to his early twenties. Duchenne is caused by a defect in a crucial protein in muscle fibres called dystrophin

·        Dystrophin acts like the steel rods in reinforced concrete; when deficient, the muscles become weak and start to waste away