THEIR DAY OUT: Children afflicted with muscular dystrophy enjoying themselves at Mayajaal near Chennai on Wednesday. — Photo: Shaju John

CHENNAI: At some point during the half-day outing children with muscular dystrophy had at Mayajaal on East Coast Road, they were meant to release the colourful balloons tied on to their wrists. When the cue came, though, some of them fiercely held on to the balloons, quite out of habit perhaps, as they hold on to the fun and frolic despite rapidly dying muscles.

Wednesday turned out to be a good day for the 75 kids with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, characterised by progressive wasting of skeletal muscles. The annual party was organised by the Muscular Dystrophy Association India and Sundaram Medical Foundation.

There were games, gifts, mimicry shows and much food flowing at the venue to keep the children happy and engaged right through the evening. While some of the little ones enjoyed racing around the complex, the older had to be helped with the wheelchairs or carried. There were many volunteers and the children had their parents in tow.

And as they kept themselves involved in activities organised for them, their parents attended lectures on various aspects of muscular dystrophy and networked with others in their position.

There are about 70 variants of MD known, and a dozen of them are paediatric muscular dystrophies, the most common being Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. DMD is an `X' factor-linked

developmental disorder, caused by lack of the protein Dystrophin. The incidence is one in 3,500 live born males across all ethnic groups, B.R. Lakshmi, project manager, Molecular Diagnostics, SMF, and the force behind MDAI here, said.

The occasion also marked the launch of MDAI's website www.mdai.org by Chennai Willingdon Corporate Foundation chairman V. Narayanan.

Presentation

It was preceded by a detailed presentation on muscular dystrophy, the activities of the Association and the website itself by V. Vishwanathan, paediatric neurologist.

Wheelchairs were given away to five children and prizes awarded to winners of the competitions held in the morning.

Former cricketer Krishnamachari Srikanth, ONGC executive director C.S. Jain, and G.K.Selvaraj, regional grand master, Freemasons of South India, attended the launch function.

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