House Magazine Article (19th December 2005)

This year I was very proud to be nominated for the e-politix Charity Champion Award for Disability, and I was delighted to win it earlier this month.

The nomination came from the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign for the work I did with them and others to raise awareness of this terrible disease.

I originally got involved when Nick Catlin came to my constituency surgery with his wife Janet and his son Saul in 2001.

They explained to me what Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy meant for Saul.  He would be wheelchair bound by his teens, and would probably not see his 21st birthday.

They asked me to join the All Party Parliamentary Muscular Dystrophy Group, and knowing Nick and Janet, they were already aware there wasn’t one, so I set one up.

The Group along with Nick’s charity Parent Project UK, the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign and others have worked to raise the awareness of the disease. 

As a result of this work a consortium of scientists managed to secure £1.6m of funding from the Government’s Genetics White Paper. 

Building on this success the group organised a Lobby of Parliament in June, which was incredibly well attended.

My greatest hope for the future is that our campaign will be an important step on the road to a cure.