Hi, I am Max Mortimer, 9 years old of Trinity School, Henley. Earlier this year, during an assembly in school Ben Clarke and his dad, Alex Clarke gave a talk on Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy to the whole school. I was struck by the challenges which Ben & other children like Ben have to face each day, so I decided I would really like to support a local Duchenne charity like Ben vs Duchenne and the Family Fund they have with DuchenneUK.

To do this I will be taking part in the UK Triathlon on the 1st of June in support of Ben and all those with Duchenne. This is part of my participation in the Mayor of Henley Awards and will be using the competition for the skills sections. I also thought it would be a great idea to combine this with the community section of the award by raising money and awareness for a local cause.

I completed the Zinc level last year in 16 minutes and have moved up to Bronze this year to really challenge myself - 50m swim - 3km cycle - 1500km run. I am aiming to complete this level in 22 minutes and hoping to raise the ambitious amount of £400 - any amount you can spare to sponsor me to help raise awareness of this worthy cause would be greatly appreciated and will really motivate me to go as fast as possible.

WHAT IS DUCHENNE MUSCULAR DYSTROPHY?

Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy is one of the most common fatal genetic disorders to affect children (mostly boys) around the world. 1 in 3500 boys are affected with DMD. It is a devastating, progressive and currently incurable muscle-wasting disease.

Duchenne results in progressive loss of strength and is caused by a mutation in the gene that encodes for dystrophin, a protein that plays a key structural role in muscle fibre function. Boys with DMD do not produce dystrophin.

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