THE mum of a terminally ill Wirral boy is calling on Globe readers to help make his birthday wish come true by giving him thousands of cards to open on his special day.

Brave William Magee, who turns six on August 19, suffers from Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy – a muscle wasting condition which affects around 2,500 children in the UK.

His mum, Kelly, hopes to give him a birthday to remember and is appealing for people to send him as many cards as possible.

Since launching the appeal on social media, Kelly has been inundated with cards for William.

The Prenton mum set up the ‘Savewilliam’ Facebook page to raise awareness of his condition and funds to research for treatment.

But New Brighton’s Bubbles World of Play soon picked up on her campaign and with their support, around 500 cards a day have arrived in the post for William.

She said: “When I put it on Facebook I was expecting to get about 15 or 20 cards but Bubbles picked up on it and it’s just spiralled – I’ve got about 400 at my house and Bubbles have got more than 5,000.

“They’ve been coming from all over the world. We’ve had cards from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, India, France – any country you can think of, we’ve had cards from there.”

Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy is one of the biggest genetic killers of children.

Children lose the ability to walk between the ages of eight and 12 before quickly losing the use of their upper body muscles, making simple everyday tasks impossible.

In some cases, the heart and diaphragm muscles can fail too in children as young as 10.

Kelly said: “William was diagnosed just before his second birthday and for his sixth birthday he asked if he could have a party in a play area but given his condition and the temperatures during the summer and how busy it is, I had to say no because it’s too dangerous.

“We decided we would go to Build a Bear and Bubbles said they will hold a private party for him after hours so it won’t be full of other children.”

Since launching the appeal, William’s story has been picked up by national newspapers.

Personalised cards website Moonpig has also got involved, offering to send a free card to William for anyone who buys a card for themselves. People need to simply enter the FORWILLIAM promotional code when they checkout.

Kelly added: “William hasn’t got a clue how many cards he’s getting. He saw one card arrive a couple of weeks and he was very exciting about the fact a card had come already.

“He thinks I drink a lot of Diet Coke at the minute because the cards are all stacked inside boxes of it.

“The record is more than five million birthday cards so we’ve got a week to beat that.”

  • William’s birthday party will be taking place at Bubbles’ World of Play on August 21.
     
  • Anyone who wants to send a card to William should send it to: William Magee, Bubbles World of Play, Marine Point, Kings Parade, New Brighton, CH45 2PB. Alternatively, you can drop the cards off at the soft play centre.
     
  • You can also visit moonpig.com and enter promotional FORWILLIAM at the checkout.
     
  • Visit SaveWilliam on Facebook for more information.