However it was not all plain sailing for Carmela as she has a very rare condition called LMNA congenital muscular dystrophy. On some days, she was in great pain and on others she experienced vertigo because of the strain on her weak muscles.
LMNA congenital muscular dystrophy (LMNA-CMD) affects just one in a million children around the world. Some children do not live beyond their childhood years, while others can live longer with the help of specialist intervention to help with breathing and heart complications. All children with this condition eventually lose the ability to walk and there is no cure.
Carmela is now calling on you to support her and fundraise for research into her condition by taking on the Wonder Woman Relay 2021.
The challenge is to cover one (or more!) of the four stages during the 30 days of September. It’s a 1,500-mile route from Carmela’s home in Wiltshire to the location in Italy where the film Wonder Woman 84 was made.
You can do this as an individual or in teams of up to four. You choose to cover the distance by whatever method suits you – walking, running, cycling, rowing, swimming or any other way you want.
The four stages are:
- Stage 1: Wiltshire to Dover – 170 miles - 5.7 miles per day over 30 days (for a team of four, that’s just less than 1.5miles each per day)
- Stage 2: Dover to Paris – 222 miles – 7.4 miles per day over 30 days (for a team of four, that’s just less than 2 miles each per day)
- Stage 3: Paris to Milan – 510 miles – 17 miles per day over 30 days (for a team of four, that’s just over four miles each per day)
- Stage 4: Milan to Palinuro – 600 miles – 20 miles per day over 30 days (for a team of four, that’s just five miles each per day)
Entry is free. But we ask you each to raise at least £100 in sponsorship to help fund MDUK’s vital research into Carmela’s condition, LMNA.
How to get involved
- Choose the stage(s) that you are going to complete.
- Go to Carmela’s JustGiving page
- Click on the orange ‘Start Fundraising’ button on the right-hand side of the page, which will then allow you to create your own JustGiving fundraising page for the challenge.
And finally, throughout September as you take on the Wonder Woman Relay 2021 challenge, please do share selfies, photos, Facebook posts and tweets and Carmela on:
Please also use the following hashtags to help raise awareness of your challenge progress:
- #WonderWomanRelay2021
- #LCMD
- #MusclesMatter
Additional information
- Find out more about Carmela's family fund
- Find out about the LMNA-CMD research MDUK funds.