We are braving the cold to fund research and help find a treatment for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.

Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) is a genetic disease that causes muscle weakness and wasting. Children born with DMD have a fault, known as a mutation, on their dystrophin gene. Genes are smaller sections of the bodys DNA. They are the instructions that make our bodies work. For people with DMD, the fault on the gene means that they cannot produce dystrophin, which is a protein that protects muscles. Without dystrophin, muscles get damaged more easily and so muscle strength and function is weakened.

DMD almost always affect boys, and is typically diagnosed in childhood. There are around 2,500 patients in the UK and an estimated 300,000 worldwide. It is classified as a rare disease. Today there is no effective treatment or cure.

Will Taylor was diagnosed with DMD in June 2014 at the age of 4. Will is now 11 years old.

In June this year we are swimming the Great North Swim to raise awareness of the disease, to bring focus on the research, and most importantly, to fund the ground-breaking work that scientists in the UK are undertaking to find treatments for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.

All of the money we raise will go directly to the Muscular Dystrophy UK Duchenne Breakthrough Research Fund. Please support Wills team as they take on this incredible challenge and donate if you can.

Thank You.