Middleton Rotary Club to donate £500 to powerchair fund for young boy with muscle-wasting condition

Harrison Taylor

Middleton Rotary Club will be donating £500 towards a new powerchair for a young boy with a muscle-wasting condition.

Harrison Taylor, 11, was diagnosed with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a genetic condition which causes progressive muscle degeneration, in January 2012 when he was four.

Harrison’s family hopes to raise £7,880 for a new powerchair, which would allow him to compete at a higher level of powerchair football. The Middleton Parish School pupil plays for the team Manchester City in the Community, after taking up the sport in May 2017.

Middleton Rotary have agreed to match funding from the Mayor’s Poor Children Aid Fund, which is administered by three Rotarians, meaning Harrison’s family will benefit from a much-needed £1,000 boost towards the Strikeforce chair.

According to the Muscular Dystrophy Association, Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy was first described in the 1860s by French neurologist Guillaume Benjamin Amand Duchenne. Until the 1980s, little was known about the cause of any kind of muscular dystrophy.

In 1986, MDA-supported researchers identified a particular gene on the X chromosome that, when mutated, leads to DMD. In 1987, the protein associated with this gene was identified and named dystrophin. Lack of the dystrophin protein in muscle cells causes them to be fragile and easily damaged.

So far, Harrison’s family crowdfunding page has raised around £2,000 towards the £7,880 cost of the chair.

To donate towards Harrison’s powerchair, please visit:

• www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/harrisontaylor