Wheels for Ryan: How A Community Unites to Help Boy with Duchenne
A project to help a young boy named Ryan with a progressive life-limiting disease called Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) has taken over the whole Sydney North Shore area with the community, local businesses and schools helping in the cause called, Wheels for Ryan.
Have you heard about Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) before?
DMD is not well known in Australia and there are no cures for it.
DMD is a muscular dystrophy that causes muscles to deteriorate and break down, leading to progressive difficulty with walking and general mobility.
DMD is the most common childhood-onset form of muscular dystrophy and affects males almost exclusively.
The prevalence of the disease is estimated to affect 1 in 3,500 male births worldwide with an age onset of between 3 and 5 years old.
Ryan was diagnosed with DMD at the age of four. Now aged 10, Ryan is becoming increasingly weak and reliant on his electric wheelchair which he is forced to leave at school because his family does not own a suitable car.
This severely limits his quality of life, mental wellbeing, and independence at night and on weekends.
Touched by Ryan’s personality and story, the community has come together to create ‘Wheels for Ryan’, a crowdfunding initiative to purchase a suitable van for the family which costs over $40,000.
The Wheels for Ryan fundraising page has been a huge success raising nearly $18,000 through 106 online donations - https://mycau.se/WheelsforRyan
Greg Johnson, a man whose son goes to the same school as Ryan has dedicated a fundraising page pledging to do the ‘Everest’ challenge by cycling his local hill as many times as the height of Mt Everest (8,848m) on October 18 - https://mycau.se/EverestingforRyan
Greg has raised $10,640 so far and is halfway to reaching his goal of raising $20,000 for Ryan.
Local businesses and cafés are also getting involved by installing donation boxes and offering promotions where a portion of their profits for a day are donated back to Ryan’s cause.
Check out the awesome businesses involved to help Wheels for Ryan below:
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References:
The Parent Project, What is Duchenne, September 2020 -
https://www.parentprojectmd.org/about-duchenne/what-is-duchenne/