EVERY day 10-year-old Isaac White fights a battle with the degenerative condition Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

So when family friend Jill Green, 70, broke her leg in seven places in April falling off her bike, she pledged to fight her own battle and cycle and swim a total of 120km throughout November.

With just a few days to go until the end of the challenge, the Cutteslowe grandmother has already raised £800 to help fund the battle to cure the condition.

Isaac, who lives in Marston, Oxford, and is a pupil at John Watson School in Wheatley, was born with the genetic condition in December 2003 and has a life expectancy of just 25.

Our top stories

Ms Green met Isaac’s parents Stuart White and Kathy Wedell 20 years ago at an Oxford Quaker meeting.

She said: “It was a lucky break when I broke my leg. I decided I needed to get fit after it and asked my physio if I could be referred to the gym. I thought I could combine it with raising money for the charity Action Duchenne.”

Every weekday this month, Ms Green has headed to the gym to swim and cycle in her bid to reach a total distance of 100km on the exercise bike and 20km in the pool.

She has just 10km of cycling and 1km of swimming left to complete.

She said: “Isaac is very cheerful, very forthright and very affectionate.

“His sense of dress is something that everyone knows about and he is a really vibrant character. I would love to get past the £1,000 sponsorship mark by the end of the month.”

In 2011 dad Stuart, 48, an Oxford University lecturer, took part in the annual Oxford Town and Gown run to raise money for the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign.

Mum Kathy Wedell, 49, said the fundraising Jill has undertaken will fund research which is close to finding a cure.

She said: “Really exciting cutting-edge research is going on around the world, and some is happening at Oxford University and at a local biotech company called Summit PLC.

“It is a complex condition and will take several different types of drugs to treat effectively, so it may take five to 10 years to deliver a cure.

“But some drugs are in the final stages and we are looking at three to five years.”

Miss Wedell thanked those who have already supported the campaign and appealed to other people to get involved.

She said: “I would like to say a big thank you to everybody who is supporting us.”

You can donate to the cause at the Ferry Leisure Centre in Summertown or online at actionduchenne.org

  • Do you want alerts delivered straight to your phone via our WhatsApp service? Text NEWS or SPORT or NEWS AND SPORT, depending on which services you want, and your full name to 07767 417704. Save our number into your phone’s contacts as Oxford Mail WhatsApp and ensure you have WhatsApp installed.