Run for Jake and a cure for Duchenne MD
The event will honor 7-year-old Jake Pritchard, who is battling Duchenne muscular dystrophy, the most common fatal genetic disorder diagnosed during childhood. All proceeds will benefit Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy and go toward researching a cure for Duchenne.
A progressive, neuromuscular disease, Duchenne affects one in 3,500 boys worldwide. Children with Duchenne cannot produce dystrophin, a protein critical to muscle function. Boys with Duchenne usually lose the ability to walk between the ages of 8 and 12. By their late teens those diagnosed with Duchenne have lost most of their upper body strength, including the ability to move their arms. Duchenne affects all muscles in the body, including the heart and lungs. Most children do not live past their early 20s due to heart or respiratory failure. To date, there is no cure or treatment to stop the progression of Duchenne.
The family friendly event will feature a 5K run, a one-mile run, as well as kids’ runs and activities. The event has drawn several hundred runners and walkers the past three years, raising more than $40,000 for research.
“We are blessed to have such supportive friends and neighbors behind us, and we are excited to see what this year’s event will bring,” said Emily Pritchard, Jake’s mom. “Our son’s muscles deteriorate each day, so we are truly in a race against time to find a cure or some sort of treatment. Every dollar and every bit of awareness count in that race.”
To learn more about Jake’s story, please visit www.jakepritchard.com or watch the video.
Brookhaven Family Run/Walk details:
Where: Brookhaven Clubhouse, 3001 Stanbury Drive, Matthews, NC 28104
When: 9 a.m., Saturday, October 29 (Registration begins at 8 a.m.)
Why: To raise awareness and funds for Duchenne research
*The event will include a 5K run/walk ($15), one-mile kids run ($10), 100-yard kids dash (free) and a 40-yard kids dash (free). Learn more and register online. You may also make donations.
The Charlotte Observer welcomes your comments on news of the day. The more voices engaged in conversation, the better for us all, but do keep it civil. Please refrain from profanity, obscenity, spam, name-calling or attacking others for their views. Read more
The Charlotte Observer is pleased to be able to offer its users the opportunity to make comments and hold conversations online. However, the interactive nature of the internet makes it impracticable for our staff to monitor each and every posting.
Since charlotteobserver.com does not control user submitted statements, we cannot promise that readers will not occasionally find offensive or inaccurate comments posted on our website. In addition, we remind anyone interested in making an online comment that responsibility for statements posted lies with the person submitting the comment, not The Charlotte Observer.
If you find a comment offensive, clicking on the exclamation icon will flag the comment for review by the administrators, we are counting on the good judgment of all our readers to help us.
