Twisted ankles, blisters, sore muscles, deluges, gale force winds—who knows what deprivations await? Your intrepid London Stoner doesn't flinch, however. Just so long as we've got a pub to aim at.
Joking aside, next week will see eleven of us transported north to walk Hadrian's Wall to raise money for a cause very close to our hearts.
Our friend Karl Kuhwald passed away last year after battling cancer. As well as being an unforgettable friend, Karl was a much loved and dedicated husband to Lisa, and a wonderful father to Oscar, Casper and twins Felix and Herbie.
In 2013, 3-year-old Felix was diagnosed with DMD. DMD is a devastating muscle-wasting condition that predominantly affects young boys, most of whom will struggle with mobility by age 8 and become wheelchair bound between the ages of 10 and 14.
DMD is life limiting, and most boys will only live into their twenties, suffering from heart or respiratory failure. Medical advancements are being made all the time though and new treatments are on the horizon. Felix and other boys like him are still young enough to benefit from these new drugs and therapies, but time is running out!
Sponsor Team Felix
The walk starts next Wednesday with a ceremonial boot-wetting on South Shields Beach and then we'll be trekking westwards, covering around 23 miles a day until we reach the other end at Bowness-on-Solway and, if there aren't pints lined up in the pub with our names on them, we're going to be very disappointed! Along the way we'll be staying either in guest houses or camping and, hopefully, not having to tend to too many blisters.
The walk has been scheduled to link with World Duchenne Awareness Day on 7th September. The support we've received so far has been amazing; we have already raised over 4k and, if you haven't yet donated, please consider clicking through to our Just Giving page. Duchenne UK is committed to accelerating research and getting promising therapies out to patients as quickly as possible. For this they need to fund doctors, nurses and physiotherapists to conduct trials and facilitate collaboration between researchers and clinicians. As you can imagine, financial support is vital.
#ShowYourStrength and we'll donate £5
DMD puts a huge burden on both sufferers and their families, but burdens can make you strong and these boys have extraordinary inner strength. This year's World Duchenne Day honours that strength with their The World's Strongest Boys campaign. You can join in by tweeting a picture of yourself showing strength—physical, mental, emotional—with the hashtag #ShowYourStrength. For every tweet put out on 7th September with that hashtag, we'll donate £5 up to a maximum of £5000. Let's get tweeting. If enough of us do it, we could get #ShowYourStrength trending on Twitter for even more publicity.
It's not often you get the chance to do something that really touches the heart, but supporting Team Felix is our way of showing the family how much we value them and Karl, and your chance to help bring about a cure for the 2500 DMD patients in the UK and 300,000 worldwide.
So please support Team Felix and join London Stone in helping end Duchenne sooner.
