Thanks for taking the time to check this out.

After joining Twitter as an experiment to bore the world with my triathlon misadventures I was approached by the Joining Jack Charity who were looking for keen cyclists and wanna-be keen cyclists to help them on their journey to find a cure for Jack.  Not just Jack, for everyone with DMD.  But Jack is a little boy who desperately needs a cure for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, DMD.

There is currently no cure.

You can find out more about Jack and the charity here; http://joiningjack.org/menu/about-our-jack.aspx

You won't need to read the below after you've seen the photos and read Jack's story on the above link.

DMD is one of the most common fatal genetic disorders to affect children around the world. Approximately one in every 3,500 boys worldwide is afflicted with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy with 20,000 new cases reported each year in the developed world.

It is a devastating and currently incurable muscle-wasting disease associated with specific inborn errors in the gene that codes for dystrophin, a protein that plays a key structural role in muscle fibre function. Symptoms usually appear in male children before the age of five. Progressive muscle weakness of the legs and pelvis eventually spreads to the arms, neck, and other areas. By age 10, braces may be required for walking, and most patients are confined to a wheelchair by age 12.

Eventually, this progresses to complete paralysis and increasing difficulty in breathing, requiring ventilation.

The condition is terminal and death usually occurs before the age of 30.