Joff Duck, 41, and his wife Joy Martin, 47, are from Cambridge, England. They’ve been traveling between 55 and 80 miles each day on their bicycles since setting out from Halifax, Nova Scotia, on May 8.
They’ve been raising money for a small English charity that’s helping to find a cure for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. This is a form of the disease that usually afflicts younger children, with a survival rate that rarely beyond age 30.
Duck said the first leg of the trip is from the East Coast to West. They are then taking an even further trip from the Canadian border to Mexico, then through Central America and South America.
Their final destination is the city of Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, at the southern tip of the South American continent. The entire trip from start to finish takes between 18- 20 months and is about 20,000 miles in length. “I’ve always wanted to do this trip. When we were on our honeymoon in Chile in January, February 2008, I asked her if she wanted to take this trip, she said yes so here we are. We wanted to do it for charity,” said Duck.
Martin said the trip has been very successful so far, traveling about 3,120 miles before arriving in Williston. They have raised about $18,000-19,000 so far, or about 11,000 British pounds. Slightly more than half of it was raised before they left for America.
“We’ve met so many nice people who’ve helped us out, let us stay with them, let us wash our clothing and giving advice. We stayed in some beautiful cottages by lakes, in trailers, in old barns and camping a majority of the time. It’s been a whole variety of American lifestyles,” said Martin.
Martin said they began planning the trip shortly after their honeymoon last year. The cost of the trip came from their own money, and every cent they’ve received goes to the charity ActionDuchenne.
Duck said after more than 10 weeks, they’ve developed a bit of a routine and have become accustomed to the cycling.
“We have a destination each day. We wake up and we set off accordingly,” said Duck.
Duck said one of the things that keeps them going each day has been the feedback they get on their Web site documenting their trip ” www.cycletheamericas.org.
“One of the e-mails was from a young girl in Massachusetts, thanking us for what we’re doing. It inspired us; that kind of inspires you on, you think about the kids,” said Duck.
Duck said they’ve also met some people with muscular dystrophy and their families along the way and that has been inspiring as well. He said there was a boy who lives in Minnesota who used to live in Wahpeton. They met him and his family as they passed through, which they thought was a powerful and inspiring thing.
“It’s great for them to meet somebody who’s doing something for them, too,” said Duck.
Martin added it’s good to be able to give a young child hope as well.
“The mother was telling us how her wish is for him to be able to grow up, find a nice girl and fall in love. It’s great to be able to give this North Dakota family hope, that this lad can live a long, happy life,” said Martin.
Duck also said the trip has been amazing in a personal way as well. He said being able to observe the history of America and see the endless landscape of such a large country has been awesome.
“As a kid I saw all those spaghetti westerns, John Wayne and all that. So thinking about the history, knowing about the history of tribes like the Sioux and then coming over and seeing where they live now is something else,” said Duck.
Duck and Martin said the next stretch of their journey is to get to Glacier National Park in Montana. They said they’ll be arriving in Glasgow in time for the weekend. By next week they should begin their journey through the park.
Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, or DMD, is one of nine different forms of a genetic muscle-wasting disorder. The disorder was first acknowledged by a French neurologist named Guillaume Benjamin Amand Duchenne in the 1860s. Until the 1980s, however, not much was known of the disorder.
The cause was found to be a mutation in a certain gene in the X chromosome that causes a failure to produce a protein. Without this protein, voluntary muscles such as the skeletal muscles begin to deteriorate.
Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy usually impacts boys and can be found as early as age 3. It impacts the arms, legs and midsection first. Boys tend to need wheelchairs between the ages of 7-12. In England, boys rarely survive past age 20.
For more information on the English charity ActionDuchenne visit www.actionduchenne.org.
To make a donation for muscular dystrophy research, or for more information and to see Duck and Martin’s progress, visit their Web site at www.cycletheamericas.org.
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