The Event
The first ever Climb a Ben for Duchenne event took place in June 2009 and raised well over £2,000.
If you want to be part of it in 2010, just get a team of friends, family or colleagues together and set yourselves the challenge of climbing a big hill in Scotland. With so many hills to choose from, there’s something to suit just about everyone. And plenty of challenges to keep coming back for, year after year! Once you’ve tried it, we think you’ll want to make Climb a Ben for Duchenne an annual date in your diary.
Please note, this isn’t an organised mass participation event. It’s up to you to choose the right level of climb to suit your group – and remember, you’re taking part at your own risk.
The Charity
All the money you raise will go to Action Duchenne – the only UK charity to exclusively fund research into Duchenne and Becker Muscular Dystrophy. Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) is a genetic muscle wasting disease that’s both severe and progressive – and almost exclusively affects young boys. These boys will face most of their lives confined to a wheelchair, and without treatment will die in their late teens to early twenties. Currently there is no cure. The only therapy available is steroid treatment, which extends a boy’s ability to walk and help maintain heart and lung function.
DMD is one of the most frequent hereditary diseases. About one in 3,500 boys is born with this disease (around two boys every week in the UK), which is caused by a mutation or damage of the dystrophin gene. As a consequence, the protein dystrophin is no longer present or exists only in traces in their muscle cells. Think of Dystrophin as a muscle shock absorber – without which, muscles cannot develop or heal properly. And as the heart and lungs are also muscles, the lack of dystrophin to these organs shortens life.
Duchenne was identified clinically over 100 years ago – but the structure of the gene responsible for it was only discovered in 1987. Now the cause of the disease is known, there are several very promising therapies in trial right now such as Exon Skipping (which will skip the genetic variation to turn Duchenne into the milder Becker form of the disease) and the upregulation of Utrophin (a protein produced by the human body which is similar to Dystrophin).
All of this needs funding. But if you choose to raise money for this cause, rest assured that in a few years you will see the change you helped to bring about.