Wirral mum raises thousands for Duchenne charity (From Wirral Globe)

Wirral mum raises thousands for Duchenne charity

10:24am Wednesday 22nd August 2012 in News By Stephanie Cureton

A WIRRAL mum fighting to fund a cure for her little boy’s illness has so far raised more than £15,000.

Kelly Magee, from Prenton, launched a massive fundraising drive for Duchenne Now after her son William was diagnosed with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy last year.

And following a family fun day on Sunday, which raised £2,241, she has plans to double her running total.

Doctors discovered three-year-old William had the disease after he took longer to learn to walk and kept falling over.

But Kelly, 32, was determined to help her son as much as she could and organised a string of fundraising events in his honour.

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

The mum-of-two said: “The fun day went really well – despite the horrific rain we had! The Mayor and Mayoress came along and we had games, stalls and Bob the Builder was there too.

“Three men even had their chests waxed into the shape of a ‘W’ in support of William!”

Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy is a progressive, aggressive muscle wasting condition which is most common in boys.

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.

Among Kelly’s efforts to raise awareness of the tot’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 now she already has plans to make the fun day, which was held at White’s Farm, Thurstaston, an annual event.

Kelly added: “As the event was held on William’s birthday, he loved every minute of it and keeps asking to have his birthday again. We definitely want to do it every year and have set ourselves a target to double our total by this time next year.

“If someone had told me when William was diagnosed that this much money would be raised in just 12 months, I wouldn’t have believed them. The level of support and generosity has been amazing.”

A charity children’s bike ride will be held on September 1 along the Wirral Way. For more information, contact Kelly on 07724 742 488.