A COUPLE are raising money for a charity in the hope it will find a cure for their son’s life-shortening illness.

Phil and Toni Charlick, from Gravesend, are raising money for Muscular Dystrophy Campaign after their four-year-old son Adam was diagnosed with the condition in November last year.

Adam has Duchenne muscular dystrophy and doctors expect the muscle wasting disease to kill him before he reaches 30 and to consign him to a wheelchair before he is a teenager.

Mr and Mrs Charlick, who live in Clarence Row and are both aged 24, are hoping to raise £5,000 for the charity through its Four Courses Classic golf day on June 18.

Mr Charlick and three friends will be taking part in the challenge to play 18 holes on four different courses in one day and Mrs Charlick is helping organise the event.

He said: “Muscular Dystrophy Campaign are working towards finding a cure for the disease so we want to raise money to help them continue with their research.

“We are very hopeful they will find a cure, which would save Adam. The charity runs trials of treatments they are working on and we have put Adam on a list to have the trials done on him.

Mr Charlick, who is an IT systems engineer, added: “Doctors say the trials will either do nothing to Adam or make him better, so it’s obviously worth a go.”

To support the Charlick’s fundraising, go to uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/fearsomefoursome

For more information on the charity, go to muscular-dystrophy.org

Muscular dystrophy facts

- Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is the most common and severe form of muscular dystrophy, which causes muscle tissue to waste away.

- It affects one in 3,000 males and is caused by a recessive gene carried by females and inherited almost exclusively by males.

- The first signs of the disease become apparent between the age of two and five, with toddlers learning to walk late and then walking clumsily and running slowly and unsteadily.

- DMD gradually weakens muscles in the arms, legs and torso and sufferers usually lose the ability to walk between the age of seven and 12.

- The disease often begins to affect respiratory and heart muscles by the time a sufferer is a teenager, and it is often fatal before the age of 25.