11.29 PM Thursday, 28 March 2024
  • City Fajr Shuruq Duhr Asr Magrib Isha
  • Dubai 04:57 06:11 12:27 15:53 18:37 19:51
28 March 2024

Dubai's British expat to swim The World in 12 hours

Published
By Staff

Kate Willoughby, a British expat living in Dubai, will be swimming 25 kilometres within The World’s breakwater in November with the aim not just to raise awareness but funds for research of the Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a genetic, incurable illness.

Kate’s nephew, six-year-old Harrison Smith, who lives in Surrey, England, was diagnosed with the condition in January 2011, and is unlikely to live beyond his late teens or early twenties.

The illness affects one in every 3,500 male live births globally; one per cent of sufferers are female.

“When I learnt about Harrison’s Duchenne diagnosis I was determined to do something to bring the disease into the spotlight and raise some funds towards finding a cure,” said Kate, 32, who works at Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

“Swimming The World will be a huge challenge but I’m training hard and have excellent support.  It’s great to be able to use a landmark that everybody has heard of to raise money for an illness that few people know anything about.”

The World, developed by Nakheel, is a manmade development of 300 islands off Dubai’s coast.

Kate, from Surrey, England, will swim The World on November 21, when tide changes are expected to be at their minimum.

Under open water swimming rules she cannot touch a boat or another person during the swim, but a support boat, provided by Nakheel, and kayakers will be on hand to provide water and food.

She will take around 12 hours to cover 25km within The World’s breakwater, the perimeter wall that shields the development’s islands.

The exact route will be revealed nearer the time, when currents have been assessed, but Kate hopes it will include New Zealand, her birthplace, and her home country of Great Britain.

Swim The World will finish at Lebanon Island, home to the Royal Island Beach Club, the first development at The World, where supporters, friends and family – including her nephew Harrison – will be eagerly waiting.

Kate has enlisted Jay Benner, coach of the UAE national swimming team, and is currently swimming 27km a week over four sessions.  Practice swims in the open water are scheduled from September.

The swim is being held under the umbrella of the UAE Red Crescent in aid of Harrison’s Fund (www.harrisonsfund.org), a registered UK charity set up by his parents, Donna and Alex Smith, to fight the genetic disease.

An incurable disease

Duchenne is a fatal, genetic disease with which sufferers cannot produce dystrophin, a protein needed to build muscles. 

As a result, every muscle in the body deteriorates and loses the ability to function.

The disease is 100 per cent fatal and sufferers are unlikely to live beyond their twenties. It leads to respiratory failure, heart failure and debilitating orthopedic complications. 

There is currently no cure.

Harrison’s Fund focuses on treatment rather than palliative care, investing in research that takes the science out from the lab, and into human clinical trials.

Over the past few years, scientists have made huge strides in gene therapy and molecular medicine, and pharmaceutical companies have begun investing in research that may well bring Duchenne therapies to market.

ALSO READ:

Bravest boy in world, 4, dies... after saving girl, 3, from drowning



Eid Al Fitr holidays for UAE public, private sectors announced
 



Ramadan, time of giving is time for ‘taking’… for some in UAE