Don't Take Your Muscles For Granted

Meet my little cousin Josh (boy on the right). He's eight. He suffers from a debilitating disease called Muscular Dystrophy. He also happens to have the most debilitating strain of the disease called the Duchenne Strain. 5 boys of the Myrtle and Evan Jensen family suffer from this disease.

This particular strain is carried by girls but only affects boy (it is passed from mother to son). If you are a carrier, it is a 50% chance that your baby boy will have it. 3 of the 5 of my mother's (living) sisters are carriers. My mom is not, so I, thankfully, am not. The life expectancy is about 21. My uncle Wayne, the first of the family to have muscular dystrophy, died at the age of 20. Now there is Jared (who happens to be 24!), Josh, Benson, and Nicholas who currently have the disease. The child's muscles deteriorate throughout their life and he will eventually be confined to a wheel chair and later won't even have enough muscle mass to handle that. It's such a terrible thing.

Every year Lethbridge has a 5K walk for Muscular Dystrophy on the first Saturday in September. This year, Chris and Aubrey ran to represent! Jensen (on his first outing at 9 days old!) and I joined in on the fun by watching from the sidelines with Grandma Cahoon.

The event started with a warm-up and then the theme song (My Wish by Rascal Flats). Aubrey enjoyed dancing to the fun, upbeat music.

After the theme song, the group took off!

It was a fun time for a good cause. Aubrey was just happy she could spend it with Daddy.