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CAN YOU HELP IN WILLIAM’S BRAVE BID
TO MEET HIS SUPERHEROES?
William is about to celebrate his 9th birthday. But for William,
unlike other children his age, he won’t be able to enjoy parties
in trampoline parks or bouncy castles in the back garden.
That’s because William, who is from Prenton in Wirral, has a
terminal condition called Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.
Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) is a serious muscle-
wasting condition caused by the lack of a protein called
dystrophin. It causes progressive muscle weakness. The lack of
the protein means that muscle fibres break down, causing muscle
to weaken gradually.
There is no available treatment or cure for the condition which
usually affects boys. It is expected that between now and when he
is 12, William won’t be able to walk and his upper body strength
will be lost as his muscles deteriorate. He will eventually need a
machine to help him breathe, his heart will fail, and he will lose
his fight against the condition.
William’s Mum, Kelly Magee, has campaigned since his diagnosis
for more research into DMD.
“He still wasn’t walking by the time he was two, and I noticed that
it was hard for him to stay standing and he had a great deal of
trouble staying upright. Once we had this devastating diagnosis
and I had realised what it was going to mean for him and our
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family, I was adamant that I could do something about this and I
threw myself into raising money for more research.”
Kelly and her husband, who also have two other children,
Elizabeth who’s 14 and Charles just 20 months, found out
everything they could about research projects that were taking
place and finally found one which would work for William and
got him onto a medical trial about two years ago.
“Around this time, he began to deteriorate, and this was
something that I really wasn’t ready for. It made me stop and
think and reassess what I could do for him. How could I help
him live as full a life as he could?”
The family have raised £24,000 for research into Duchenne
Muscular Dystrophy over the last seven years and would now
like to raise more funds but this time for William himself.
“I felt like my drive to find a cure for William - and that was,
and still is, the ultimate goal - was taking me away from what
really mattered and that was being with him and enjoying every
second. He’s made a bit of a bucket list of wishes and it’s got
things on there like, staying overnight in a hotel, going to see
Buckingham Palace and being able to go and buy as much Lego
as he wants. People have been so generous, and we’ve been very
lucky to have been offered the chance to go and do some of these
things with him.”