A TEENAGER who lost her mum and brother to a muscle wasting disease has created a bucket-list of 1,000 things to do before she’s 25 as their legacy.

Kaytie Playll wants to raise £100 for every challenge she ticks off to help increase awareness of and help beat muscular dystrophy.

While there’s nothing unusual about some of the tasks, Kaytie, 18, will also be tackling some adventurous activities, things which are sure to make people bristle with envy and others which will be pretty hard to achieve.

She wants to give blood, take a photo every day throughout 2015, skydive, cuddle a cheetah cub, spend New Year’s Eve in New York’s Times Square, direct a film, write a series of children’s books, go on a cruise, fly a kite, record songs in several countries and meet Barack Obama – and plenty more.

“I’ve got a pile of paper with all of the things written on and I’m crossing them off as I go,” said Kaytie, a music production student who lives in Blackbrook, Taunton.

“I started about two years ago and I’ve done about 30 so far – I’ve been quite busy with my studies, but I now feel the time is right to go for it.

“I wanted to make the list because growing up I always heard mum say, ‘I’d love to do this or that’, but she suddenly passed away and didn’t get a chance to do it. I want to do it for her.”

Kaytie’s brother, Sam, died aged 14 in 2003, while their mother died at 43 six years later, both from Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Her sister, Miranda, 29, is a carrier.

“I’ve started saving money from work I do in a recording studio and it would be amazing if people sponsored me,” said Kaytie.

“I want to help increase awareness of the condition and to support efforts to find a cure.

“MD is quite common, but few people know about it.

“There are lots of different types and it’s mostly passed down by mothers.

“If boys get it, they don’t tend to live into adulthood.

“It damages all your muscles and shuts them down so you’re unable to use them.

“It was traumatic watching my brother and mum waste away.

“I was quite young at the time, but looking back at photos of them in their final days is really heartbreaking.”

 

 

FACTFILE.

*Muscular dystrophies are a group of inherited genetic conditions that gradually cause the muscles to weaken, leading to increasing disability.

*MD is a progressive condition. It often begins by affecting a particular group of muscles before affecting the muscles more widely.

*Some types of MD eventually affect the heart or the muscles used for breathing.

*There is no cure, but treatment can help manage many of the symptoms.

*MD is caused by mutations in the genes responsible for the structure and functioning of a person's muscles.

*The mutations are often inherited from parents.

*More than 70,000 children and adults in the UK have MD or a related condition.

*Duchenne MD is the most common type of MD and affects around one boy in every 3,500 in the UK.

*There is currently no cure, but new research is looking into ways of repairing the genetic mutations and damaged muscles associated with the condition and there are promising clinical trials for Duchenne MD.