A HALLOWEEN ball in aid of a Wirral mum's fight to cure her little boy's illness takes place next week.

The Save William Charity Halloween Ball was inspired by Kelly Magee, from Prenton, whose son William was diagnosed with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy in 2011.

It is a progressive, aggressive muscle wasting condition which is most common in boys.

Kelly, from Prenton, has raised £20,000 for her charity Save William and Duchenne Now, which helps fund research into the condition.

Symptoms usually begin in the legs and pelvis before the disease slowly takes away all use of the body's muscle, leading to eventual death.

Next weekend's ball was organised by Stephanie Hughes, a former schoolfriend of Kelly’s, who decided to do something after reading our story on the campaign.

She told the Globe: "After reading the story, I was keen to reach out to Kelly and help in the best way I could.

"We had a meeting and Kelly was over the moon to hear from us and how we wanted to assist her.

"The aim of the night is to raise as much funds as well as awareness as we can.

"This is not a charity that you hear much about so awareness is key for them to gain interest from businesses to be the charity that they fund for the year.

"We decided to keep it local to Kelly and her current supporters at the fantastic Leasowe Castle Hotel Venue."

Among Kelly’s efforts to raise awareness of her son’s condition was a special video montage telling viewers about Duchenne’s, for which Coldplay gave their approval to use their hit ‘Fix You’ and a petition to the Government to fund research.

Kelly said: "I want to say a huge thank you to Stephanie for organising the ball for William.

"We went to school together and it was so nice that she has agreed to do this.

"It's great to have friends like this behind you.

"The support I’ve had since I started fundraising has just been absolutely amazing.

"I've had to take a break from fundraising because it's been so exhausting.

"By this stage I'd hoped to have raised more than I had done, but I’m constantly asking for help.

"It's so important that we raise even more money now, because more people in Wirral are being diagnosed with the condition.

"William is starting to show signs of the condition and so we’re looking at what measures we need to take in order to help him."

Tickets for the charity ball - to be held at Leasowe Castle Hotel on Saturday, October 5, from 7pm to 1am - are available from Stephanie on 07980 548 196.

Kelly also set up a petition calling on the Government to put funding aside to research the condition so that a cure could be a possibility.

To add your name, it can be found at the following link http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/54373