Team Felix: raising hope for the #WorldsStrongestBoys

January 26, 2017

What a great result! Last week, in London Stone’s latest fund-raising drive for Team Felix, in support of Duchenne UK—the charity that aims to improve the outlook for children with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD)—we asked everyone to share with us a picture of someone they rely on for support and add the hashtag #worldsstrongestboys. We had a tremendous response across Facebook and Twitter. Thank you! Between us, we raised £1075.

Emily Crossley, CEO of Duchenne UK, explained what the money will go towards this year.

“We’re focused on clinical trials, on looking at repurposed drugs—ones that already exist and are approved for use for another disease.” Pre-clinical trials in the use of Simvastatin (commonly used to reduce cholesterol) have indicated that it may well reduce skeletal muscle damage and enhance muscle function. While this won’t cure the cause of DMD, it could do a lot to improve the lives of the children affected.

The benefit of using repurposed drugs is that the enormously expensive development stages and safety trials are already out of the way.

“We’re also setting up a clinical research hub. We’ve already funded sixteen posts with other charities,” added Emily. The need for this research network, which links health professionals around the country, became apparent when Duchenne UK realised that clinical trials were being turned away by the NHS because there were not enough doctors and nurses to carry them out.

Conquest Hard Landscaping and Hollandscapes were just some of those who got involved Galvanised into action, they got together with other patient organisations in the UK to create £1.2 million of funding and now support research nurses, physiotherapists, coordinators and research fellows.

This is a charity driven by people with a very real understanding of the heartbreak of DMD. Emily herself is a mother to one of the #worldsstrongestboys and the charity has raised £7million over only four years. “We need more clinical trials,” said Emily, “not just at Great Ormond Street and Newcastle University.”

Upcoming events will include Tri4Duchenne, the annual fund-raising triathlon which takes place in September. If you fancy a truly great reason to get fit this year, why not start your training programme now in swimming, cycling and running?

D Plumridge Professional Driveways and Habitat Landscapes got involved too!

Meanwhile, our next event at London Stone will be on April 10th to commemorate the birthday1 of Felix’s dad Karl. We’re calling it The Day of the Jackal. We’ll be donating 10% of our turnover on that day to Team Felix to honour the memory of a truly special person.

Keep a look-out on our Facebook and Twitter pages for more info in the run-up to April 10th. What with the money raised by London Stone staff and your enthusiastic support of this and our previous campaigns, we’re already well over a third of the way to our target of £30,000, so our fingers are crossed that April 10th will see another big boost to the fund.

If you’d like to donate now, then please visit https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/London-Stone-Felix.

Karl’s birthday is actually 9th April, but that’s a Sunday this year, so we’re moving it to the nearest weekday.