My Little Buddy Charles

My wife's sister has two little boys and they are known simply as James and Charles. It's never just James or just Charles but said together as if they are one being with two heads. They come and visit us on occasion which is a scene when you consider six boys under one roof. The last time they came, we all went dragon hunting deep within the East Texas woods. Armed with swords and semi-automatic weapons, we ventured through the dense forest in search of this demonic beast ready to kill and bring it home for dinner.

Charles, the younger of the two boys couldn't make the trip into the woods that weekend. For a while now, a big question as to Charles's ability to do a great number of things has tabled much discussion. Perhaps he's just delayed was the usual standard answer as the last thing you want to think about is something serious. And although a lot of the signs were there, I don't think any of us were prepared to learn he has Muscular Dystrophy.

Charles, who is just four years old, has Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Out of the forty types of this disease it is the most common and lethal form of muscular dystrophy. Simply put, Charles does not produce a protein call dystrophin which is more or less an active ingredient helping form or structure muscle cells. Kind of like not having a good mortar mix when you're laying bricks together as it's hard for the bricks to stay in place.

When learning of this, his mother jumped in full throttle into education mode taking up the staff of leadership and forging a path for Charles as well as the rest of us. What she found was all kinds of information and help led by The Muscular Dystrophy Association which has been fighting this disease for sixty years.

Charles, like so many other children that have this disease, has a chance. Through donations, new treatments are discovered daily as well as the ongoing pursuit of overall awareness.

To help Charles and kids just like him, all you have to do is simply

Text the word "CURE" to 90999 

and $5 will be donated to Coach to Cure Muscular Dystrophy.

It's that simple.

Do this for Charles. The world needs more dragon hunters and less dragons.