Dusty's Trail

At the age of six, Dusty Brandom was diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a degenerative disease that affects 1 in every 3,500 boys born. While life expectancy varies in each case, those with the disease rarely live past their 20s. Dusty's family realized that their happy and playful child would suffer a long, progressively weakening condition until his heart and breathing muscles ceased to function. As a family, they united to learn as much as they could about the disease and to enjoy every moment in life, which eventually led Dusty to ask the question "how come there are no old people with Duchenne?" This inspired Dusty's mother, Catherine Jayasuriya, to form Coalition Duchenne in order to spread global awareness and raise funding for research and a cure. With the support of other affected families, they decide to scale Mt. Kinabalu, a sacred 13,455-foot high mountain on the Malaysian island of Borneo.