Two team members from Darlington Building Society swapped finances for fitness to spend a full working day exercising in order to raise more than £290 for a local boy diagnosed with a muscle wasting disease.
Jayne Tomlinson, 38, and Olly Chapman, 25, both team members at the Society’s Cockerton branch, took it in turns to work their muscles for Mitchell, a Darlington boy diagnosed with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, and the charity that supports him, Harrison’s Fund.
Harrison’s Fund is named after another young boy with the fatal genetic condition which affects all the muscles in the body, causing them to waste away. It is committed to providing as much funding as possible to researchers working on a cure for Duchenne.
The challenge started with Jayne taking an early morning run from the Cockerton branch to the Society’s Tubwell Row branch and back to Cockerton, passing the baton to Olly who then ran from Tubwell Row to the Society’s Head Office at Morton Park, before making the journey back to Cockerton.
After the running portion of the day was out of the way, Jayne completed laps of West Auckland Road on rollerblades before she and Olly took it in turns to box, skip, push-up, and pull-up until the end of the working day at 5pm; a total of seven hours.
Jayne, Branch Manager of the Cockerton branch, said: “We decided to fundraise for Harrison’s Fund as it is supporting a local family whose son, Mitchell, has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.
“Mitchell is a little soldier. He is so happy and full of life that we were inspired by his resilience to raise awareness and funds of the little-known condition.
“We wanted to do something a bit different so that people passing by would ask what we were doing and also highlight how lucky we are to have working muscles when there are thousands of children around the world with Duchenne.”
Mitchell’s mum, Katherine Tinkler, said: “It’s fantastic to have the support of Jayne, Olly and Darlington Building Society.
“We are determined to make Mitchell’s life as comfortable and enjoyable as possible and to find a cure. The money will be gifted to Harrison’s Fund and will go towards continuing the researching in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.
“The support we’ve received locally is very touching and as we approach our second year of fundraising we hope that we can continue to gain momentum and build awareness of this devastating disease.”
You can continue to support the Muscles for Mitchell campaign here: http://www.justgiving.com/workourmusclesday
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