A FIRM bringing Christmas magic to shoppers has pledged to provide a special present to a charity for youngsters with a life-limiting condition.

Richard Kitchen-Dunn, chairman of Lockwood-based display specialist KD Decoratives, is backing charity Action Duchenne after hearing about five-year-old Edward Ackroyd, who has the muscle-wasting condition Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.

The bubbly youngster was diagnosed with the DMD when he was three.

Since then, parents Paul and Heidy Ackroyd and grandparents Tony and Susan Ackroyd, have been raising cash to fund research into a cure and improve the level of care for sufferers.

The degenerative condition, which affects one in 3,500 boys but rarely afflicts girls, is caused by the absence of dystrophin, a protein needed to strengthen and repair muscles. As a result, every skeletal muscle in the body deteriorates.

It means Edward tires easily and has difficulty running, jumping and playing like other little boys his age. As he gets older, his mobility will decline and by 10 or 12 will only be able to get about in a wheelchair.

In his teenage years, he will also need 24-hour care with specialist equipment. As DMD progresses, he will have heart and breathing problems.

Life expectancy is only to the late teens or early 20s.

Researchers in the USA and the UK believe they are close to finding effective treatment, but progress is slow because of the need to build up information on genetic variations in boys with DMD and the female “carriers” to enable clinical trials to progress more quickly.

Parents of youngsters with the condition are raising funds through Action Duchenne, which has already funded several research projects.

The Ackroyds have raised more than £144,000 with events ranging from pub collections to a sponsored walk across Morecambe Bay.

Richard Kitchen-Dunn heard about Edward’s story at a business conference during which Tony Ackroyd was a speaker.

Richard said: “Tony was telling the conference about this disease and 95% of the people in the room – including me – had never heard of it.

“It was quite a touching story and while our company does donate to lots of charities, we decided this cause deserved special support.”

Richard has presented the Ackroyds with a cheque for £3,300 for Action Duchenne – and has pledged to give the charity a percentage of the takings from every Christmas display contract KD Decorative undertakes this year.

Heidy, who lives at Denshaw, said: “Edward did not walk and crawl until quite late on, but as all kids are different we did not see any problem.

“When he was three-and-a-half, the people at his pre-school said they were concerned about his development and suggested we get him checked out by a paediatrician. She knew at once what was wrong.”.

Heidy said the family were shocked at the news – and the fact that as she was the carrier. It was only pure luck that her other sons, Samuel, eight, and three-year-old Thomas did not have DMD. The Ackroyds traced back through their family tree, but could find no evidence of DMD.

Heidy said: “It seems the gene that causes DMD can skip several generations. It is always carried by the female, but it does not always appear. We know one family with three sons who all have DMD, but in our case only Edward has it.”

Heidy said: “Edward gets full support at school and he loves life. He loves going to school and playing out. But there will come a time in the near future when we will have to explain to him in a nice way that he has poorly muscles and that the doctors are doing all they can to find a cure.”

Details: www.actionduchenne.org. To donate: www.justgiving.com/sayhellotoedward