Over the weekend of the 9th & 10th of May, Optima Racing Team and Friends will be setting out to complete a total of 9556km - the distance from our gym ('The Arch') under Kew Bridge, to the city of Tokyo, Japan. In light of the Tokyo Olympics being postponed, we thought we'd help keep the dream alive for Olympian and long time club member Gill Saunders, for whom Tokyo will be her 3rd Olympics!! Members of the team, family and friends, young and old, will be going the extra mile (or should I say kilometre) to walk, swim (in 2X4m garden paddling pools of course!), cycle and run the club to the other side of the world in 48 hours (all while respecting social distancing guidelines).

Our fundraising efforts will be going towards Duchenne UK, a charity supporting young boys with muscular dystrophy and a charity which also gets most of their sponsorship from charity events such as the London Marathon. Duchenne UK is particularly special to Optima as one of our team members has a personal connection to the charity. Here is her story:

"My nephew Archie, currently aged 6, was diagnosed with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy 3 years ago. His diagnosis tore a hole in our family and the only bit of hope we have is with Duchenne UK funding and finding a cure. Duchenne UK allowed us to see a future for Archie when we thought he had none, it let us believe that his life could be longer than the short 20 years it is expected to currently be and it provided us with hope that he could one day just be a normal boy."

Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy is a desperately cruel disease. It's the most common genetic killer of children worldwide. Children will be totally paralysed by their teens and many won't live beyond their 20s.There is no treatment or cure. But thanks to recent breakthroughs, and with your help, we believe we can save them. Please donate and help us to reach Tokyo!

Duchenne UK is a highly focused, ambitious and lean charity with a clear vision: to fund and accelerate treatments and a cure for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). DMD is a devastating muscle wasting disease and is the most common genetic killer of children worldwide. There is no treatment or cure. Children will be totally paralysed by their teens and won’t live beyond their 20s. But thanks to recent breakthroughs, we believe we can save them. We aim to eradicate it in 10 years: TO END DUCHENNE IN TEN. www.duchenneuk.org