Paul Kirkham
Paul's page
Fundraising for Muscular Dystrophy UK
Story
In October I'm running the London Marathon for Muscular Dystrophy UK.
Those of you who knew me when I was in my teens or early-to-mid twenties may not be surprised at this - I was a reasonably fit lad. Those of you who know me professionally are probably aghast and potentially preparing a Facebook post about how sadly missed I'll be and how bad an idea it was for a gentleman of my... ahem... stature to be even contemplating this.
Regardless, it's happening.
The reason that I'm doing it is two-fold. Firstly, it's to raise money for a cause that's close to my heart. My less-handsome cousin Grant and his wife Kerry's twin boys, Oscar and Seb suffer from Facioscapulohumeral dystrophy (FSHD).
Facioscapulohumeral dystrophy (FSHD) is a genetic muscle-wasting condition caused by a gene mutation. It primarily affects the face, shoulders and upper arms but eventually can cause weakness across the whole body. It makes it difficult for Oscar and Sebastian to smile or eat normally, and makes any physical activity much harder for them than their peers.
Muscular Dystrophy UK is the charity for the 70,000 children and adults living with muscle-wasting conditions in the UK. There's currently no cure, and in many cases, it limits lives. MDUK do vital work in funding pioneering research into treatments and cures as well as providing vital information, advice, resources and support for individuals and families living with these conditions.All donations, big or small, are greatly appreciated.
The second, and more important reason is that my cousin Ted ran it last year in the frankly sickening time of 3hrs 46 mins, and my ego can't handle this, so I need to do it in 3hrs 45 mins or less. In reality It's going to be more like 4hrs 30 Mins.
Please donate whatever you can - it's greatly appreciated.
Oscar and Sebastian Spink are twelve-year-old twins from Lymm in Cheshire where they live with older sister Scarlett, mum and dad Kerry and Grant and their three dogs Bertie, Pip and Ernie.They were officially diagnosed in July 2019 with Facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD).While dealing with this diagnosis has been a shock, the family are keeping a positive outlook and have decided to help fund research into the boys condition by setting up a Family Fund and reaching out to others to get involved along the way too.
