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‘More must be done to help our boys’

Emilene Coventry
30/ 4/2008

LIKE many young lads, Matthew Gilmore is car mad – he dreams of driving the fastest road car in the world, the Bugatti Veyron.

But the 12 year old will never be able to drive even an ordinary car.

That’s because Matthew suffers from the incurable muscle-wasting disease, Duchenne’s Muscular Dystrophy.

Diagnosed as a toddler, he is confined to a wheelchair and his abilities will gradually worsen. Matthew has to be hoisted into bed and helped to eat as he gradually loses strength in his arms. Children with Duchenne’s usually do not survive past their early 20s.

Matthew said: "It’s really important that the government gives funding for the disease. I don’t want any more kids my age to wake up like me and find out they can’t walk. I get upset because I’d really like to drive fast American cars."

Mum Diane, 43, hasn’t the heart to break the news that her son will never achieve his other dream – to join the police.

"We just want him to enjoy what time he has," she said. "He was 11 when he woke up and found out he couldn’t walk any more. It was just after Christmas.

"He’d been struggling and you could see on Christmas Day he tottered around because he wanted to enjoy his presents. You try not to think about it but when I go to bed that’s when it goes round in my head."

Diane and husband John, 38, of Greenside Lane, Droylsden found out Matthew had Duchenne’s from doctors treating him for Asperger’s syndrome, a form of autism.

Lorna Hutchings and Dan Walker, of Woodbank Terrace, Mossley fear they could be facing the same future as their little son Ben was diagnosed with Duchenne’s 18 months ago.

Lorna, 30, felt something was wrong when the three year old never tried to walk or crawl. Doctors reassured her he was just a slow developer but eventually tests showed signs of the disease.

Dan, 28, said: "It was hard to take at first. It’s difficult to believe anything like that can happen to your child."

"People say he looks fine but they don’t know the long-term effects. There needs to be much more research into a treatment for the disease," said Lorna.

Action Duchenne funds research into treatments for Duchenne’s and Becker muscular dystrophy.

For information or to make a donation, go to www.actionduchenne.org, telephone 0208 556 9955, or write to Action Duchenne, Epicentre, 41 West Street, Leytonstone, London E11 4JL.