About Muscular Dystrophy Campaign
The Muscular Dystrophy Campaign is the only UK charity that funds research into finding treatments and cures for muscular dystrophy - a collection of some 60 neuro muscular conditions, which are all characterised by progressive muscle wasting.
This work is entirely dependent on voluntary donations and there is no government support.
The charity provides support for people with MD and their families through:
- a network of family care officers whose job it is to provide both emotional support and practical advice and help to families affected by muscular dystrophy
- clinical and diagnostic services through four 'Muscle Centres' and clinics
- a national occupational therapy advisor who advises on house adaptations and specialist equipment
- a comprehensive information service
- Leading edge research, information services, and website
What is Muscular Dystrophy?
Muscular Dystrophy is a collection of some 60 neuro muscular conditions, which are all characterised by progressive muscle wasting.
Some conditions are milder than others, but all of them have the capacity to seriously restrict the ability to live independently. Some, including the most common childhood form Duchenne, take young lives.
A boy with Duchenne is likely to need a wheelchair by his early teens and has a life expectancy no greater than his early twenties.
All the muscular dystrophies are genetic conditions, but they can strike anybody. A condition can occur by a random mutation in families where there has been no previous history and can affect the family for succeeding generations.
As yet there are no known cures.
Our history
Forty years of standing up to muscular dystrophy:
1959 - The Muscular Dystrophy Group was founded with the aim of finding treatments and cures for muscular dystrophy and associated conditions
1960s - Muscle Centres established in Newcastle, Glasgow and Hammersmith
1970s - Important research on muscle cell physiology and tissue culture
1977 - First National Occupational Therapy Advisor appointed.
1978 - First Family Care Officer appointed
1982 - Charity begins to finance research into the defective gene which is discovered to cause Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy
1987 - Major Breakthrough - scientists discover that the defective gene fails to make a protein called dystrophin, which is the "cement" that binds together muscle cells and which the normal gene produces
1988 - Ante-natal diagnosis becomes available
1990 - Neuromuscular Centre established to provide training and work for young people with muscular dystrophy
1997 - Work begins on discovering how another protein produced by the body, called utrophin, might be used to replace missing dystrophin