People often think of a brand as a name and logo. But it's about who we are, what we do and why we do it. It runs through all of our work, from our support services and campaigns to our fundraising and research, and at the centre of it is our community.

We’ve been sharing expert advice and support to people with muscle-wasting and weakening conditions for over 60 years. There are more than 110,000 people in the UK today with one of over 60 conditions, as well as all of the people around them, but we know we’re not reaching enough of them.

We want to ensure that people hear about us, and when they do that they are clear about who we are and what we do. Having reviewed our brand last year we found that, although it has some great elements, it didn’t present a clear picture of who we are today. We also knew that our brand needed to be more accessible. Our colour, font and logo wasn’t as accessible and inclusive as it could be, particularly online.

We haven’t reviewed our brand for some time and as this year we’ve been developing our new three-year organisational strategy, it was the right time to also review our brand. A strong, bold, and recognisable brand means people will know who we are and what we do so they can reach out for support and in turn become part of our community through fundraising, campaigning and volunteering.

Making sure our refreshed brand best meets the needs of people with a muscle-wasting or muscle weakening condition has been at the heart of the project since the very beginning. We involved members of our community throughout the process, including people living with conditions, healthcare professionals, researchers, supporters, staff and volunteers. Their feedback and valuable contributions were listened to carefully and taken on-board at every stage and we’re really proud of the final result.

We’re still orange, we’re still called Muscular Dystrophy UK, but we’re now clearer, bolder, and stronger.

Michael Attenborough CBE, a long-standing supporter of the charity, as was his father Lord Richard Attenborough CBE, narrates our new brand video:

While you’ll see our refreshed brand online and at large events from July, many of our materials will be updated in the coming months as we use up our current stock. We want to minimise our environmental impact and roll out the refreshed brand in the most cost effective and efficient way as possible.  You may, therefore, see materials which use both our old and refreshed brand for some time yet.

Catherine Woodhead, our Chief Executive said:

We’ve already made great advances that would have been unthinkable just 10 years ago, and we are determined to go even further and faster. Our community makes us stronger and that’s why we decided to work together to refresh our brand. 

Our refreshed brand will enable us to engage and inspire more people going forwards and support our sustainability and growth as an organisation. We’ll be able to go further in achieving our ambition to share expert advice and support people to live well now; fund groundbreaking research to understand the different conditions better and lead us to new treatments; work with the NHS towards universal access to specialist health; and together, campaign for people’s rights, better understanding, accessibility, and access to treatments. Ultimately, we will be able to reach, help and support more of our community.”

The more of us who come together, the greater the impact we’ll be able to make. Together we are stronger. Join us. Sign up to our newsletter today.

We reported recently on a key step in the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) pathway for approval of Sarepta Therapeutic’s gene therapy SRP-9001 (also known as delandistrogene moxeparvovec-rokl) for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). We are pleased to report that the regulator has granted accelerated approval for the treatment of ambulatory children (those able to walk unassisted), aged between four and five years, with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. This marks a significant milestone in the field of medicine and offers hope for people living with this condition.

The FDA's accelerated approval programme is designed to speed up the availability of treatments for serious conditions that demonstrate promising early results. This decision reflects the regulator’s recognition of the urgent need for effective therapies and its commitment to advancing medical breakthroughs.

While accelerated approval allows patients in the US to access the therapy sooner, it also requires ongoing monitoring and additional studies to confirm its benefits. This approach strikes a balance between addressing unmet medical needs and ensuring patient safety.

The FDA’s decision will not directly affect people living with Duchenne muscular dystrophy in the UK. Muscular Dystrophy UK is in contact with Roche – Sarepta’s partner for global distribution – who have provided more information about delandistrogene moxeparvovec and their plans for getting the treatment to people in the UK. You can read more here.

The health authority in the UK responsible for issuing Marketing Authorisations for medicines is the Medicines & Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), not the FDA. Roche is actively engaging with the MHRA to determine the best possible route to achieving a potential licence for delandistrogene moxeparvovec. In addition to gaining a licence, further assessments of clinical and cost-effectiveness by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) must also be undertaken before a medicine is available to patients on the NHS. You can read more about this process here.

Duchenne muscular dystrophy is a rare muscle-wasting condition that mainly affects boys and men. People with DMD lack a protein called dystrophin, which is required to maintain the strength of muscles. Delandistrogene moxeparvovec is a gene therapy for DMD developed by Sarepta Therapeutics. It is based on the delivery of micro-dystrophin (a smaller, but functional, version of dystrophin protein) into muscle cells via an adeno-associated virus (AAV) vector.

This is an exciting step forward for the community and we will keep you updated on developments that impact people in the UK, whenever we can.