600 Kilometers for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy

“A boy, his dad and 600km on a cargo bike to defeat Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy”, an ambitious and hope-driven slogan on Max’s Big Ride’s website. Max’s Big Ride began in 2015 with father and son riding a 600 km cargo bike from Ottawa to Hamilton. The event has since expanded into three different events called Max’s Big Ride, The Ice Cream Ride and Max’s Big Climb. These events have two goals in mind, one, to increase awareness about Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, and two, to raise money for research in the subject. 100% of donations and proceeds goes to Jesse’s Journey, which is an Ontario organization that funds DMD researcher’s efforts to find a cure.

Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy is a genetic muscle disease caused by a mutation in the X chromosome resulting in lack of the protein dystrophin within muscle cells. The lack of dystrophin makes is easy for muscle cells to be easily damaged. More information can be found here.

Proceeds from this year’s Max’s Big Ride will go to the University of Toronto Mississauga, to direct the proceeds from this year’s ride to establish a doctoral fellowship with the Gunning Group Lab at UTM. The fellowship will help evaluate the effectiveness of the group’s STAT3 inhibitors in animal models of Duchenne. Hopefully, this group will find ways of not only preventing muscle atrophy, but reversing existing damage from DMD.

The three events are:

1.)    Max’s Big Ride – Max and father Andrew will start the ride on June 11th, 2018 in Hamilton and finish 600km later in Ottawa on Father’s Day.
2.)    The Ice Cream Ride – This is a family-friendly ride that takes place on June 23rd, 2018, that features ice cream, lunch and two routes.
3.)    Max’s Big Climb – A competitive race up Sydenham Road that takes place July 21st, 2018

Donations and more information can be found on their website.

You can listen to their interview in the clip below.