Aston Walls Sponsored Swim

Aston Walls is 9 years old and was diagnosed with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy in 2009 after his parents noticed he was struggling to keep up with his friends in the playground. Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy is a severe progressive muscle wasting disease which affects every muscle in the body. Over the last 5 years Aston has gradually lost the ability to walk, lift his arms, and stand. He now uses a wheelchair full time and has to have regular check-ups and treatments for his heart and lungs. There is currently no cure for Duchenne.

Aston has learned to swim at Kimberley Swimming Club and he is the only boy we know of with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy who can swim more than just a few metres. Swimming gives Aston freedom and control in water which he no longer enjoys on land and it is also thought that swimming has helped Aston control his breathing (remember breathing is driven by muscular action) Aston is the proud owner of distance swimming badges between 50m and 800m and now he has set his sights on achieving his 1000m swimming badge.

On Saturday 22nd August Aston will take to the water and attempt to swim 1000m and he is looking for sponsorship, and that got us thinking…………...... We know how much our members enjoy swimming and we also know how generous you all are, so we thought we would use the evening of this date to invite as many of you as possible to join in and also complete a sponsored swim and maybe earn a new badge of your own.
All sponsorship monies raised will go to “Duchenne Now” the charity set up to help fund research and clinical trials that we hope will one day help those with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. You can read more about the charity and condition at www.duchennenow.org

If you would like to participate in our sponsored swim please complete the forms at the desk.

Swimming will begin at 6pm on Saturday 22nd August so there will be no normal MAIN pool sessions on that night if the uptake for badges means we need the full 2 hours

Please let us know what distance badges you are aiming for so that we can give you a start time if necessary.

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