Our story
We began fundraising in 2007 with the aim of curing Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a devastating muscle-wasting disease that leads to paralysis and early death for all sufferers. The disease is 100% fatal. There is currently no cure.
We identify and fund research into potential treatments and ways to revolutionise care, with the aim of improving the condition of everyone living with Duchenne – now and in the future.
We have created powerful collaborations between some of the world’s most brilliant scientists, proactive Duchenne charities, innovative biotech companies and top clinicians to accelerate the development of therapies that are ripe for treating Duchenne.
We get involved to make a difference for everyone with Duchenne.
MILLION pounds raised thanks to our dedicated supporters
projects funded to help combat the biggest genetic killer of children
other patient organisations with which we have proudly collaborated
Our founders
Doron Rosenfeld
Co-founder
Doron is the Commercial Director at ML Accessories Ltd, a leading UK-based importer and distributor of Lighting & Electrical products. He previously worked in the telecommunications and recruitment industries. He co-founded the Duchenne Research Fund with his wife Kerry following their son’s diagnosis of Duchenne muscular dystrophy, in order to drive research efforts forward in a bid to identify long-term treatments and a cure for DMD.
Our trustees
Daniel Baum
Trustee
Daniel qualified as a chartered accountant at BDO in 1987 and is a founding partner of CBH. He is a general practitioner with deep and thorough understanding of both business and tax issues. Daniel keeps a firm hand on the Duchenne Research Fund’s donations and spending, ensuring management accounts, cashflow, budgeting and internal reporting standards are produced and properly followed.
Dr Sarah Shelley
Trustee
Dr Sarah Shelley MBBS (London) MRCGP DFFP is a GP at the Millway Medical Practice in London. She helps coordinate the research focus and direction of the Duchenne Research Fund. Sarah works closely with Dr Ronald Cohn – head of the charity’s scientific advisory board – to review projects and scientific possibilities for Duchenne muscular dystrophy and the charity’s portfolio.
Our Scientific Advisory Board
Dr Ronald Cohn
Chief Scientific Advisor
Dr Ronald Cohn is the President and CEO of the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto (known as ‘Sick Kids’), where he has also been Paediatrician-in-Chief, Chief of the Division of Clinical and Metabolic Genetics and Co-Director of the Centre for Genetic Medicine. He is also the Inaugural Women’s Auxiliary Chair in Clinical and Metabolic Genetics and a faculty member of the Department of Molecular Genetics and Paediatrics at the University of Toronto.
He received his medical degree from the University of Essen, Germany. After his postdoctoral fellowship at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in the laboratory of Dr Kevin Campbell, he moved to Baltimore where he was the first combined resident in paediatrics and genetics at the Johns Hopkins University. He subsequently joined the faculty of the McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine at Johns Hopkins where he became the director of the world’s first multidisciplinary centre for Hypotonia, which has earned national and international recognition. He was also the director of the medical genetics residency programme at Johns Hopkins. In July 2013, the Hospital for Sick Children’s Centre for Genetic Medicine launched the Genome Clinic, focusing on genetics research and discovery.
Dr Cohn has received numerous awards including the David M Kamsler Award for outstanding compassionate and expert care of pediatric patients, 2004, First Annual Harvard-Partners Center for Genetics and Genomics Award in Medical, 2006, and the NIH Young Innovator Award, 2008.
He has been the Chief Scientific Advisor for the Duchenne Research Fund since the charity’s inception and, together with and Dr Kevin Campbell (Professor of Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Iowa), Professor Madeleine Durbeej-Hjalt (Professor and Vice Chair of the Department of Experimental Medical Science at Lund University, Sweden) and Dr James Dowling (Associate Professor, Departments of Paediatrics and Molecular Genetics, University of Toronto), advises the board of trustees on funding decisions. More recently, he has been representing the charity as the Scientific Advisory Board Member of Solid GT, a biotechnology company that was founded to advance gene therapy as a disease-modifying treatment for all Duchenne muscular dystrophy patients.
Our partners
Our mission
Our impact
Your help
Your generosity has funded millions of pounds worth of ground-breaking research. And there is still work to do.