The Faculty invites everyone to meet Max and his dad
and join the Faculty on this special occasion!
RGN Atrium | Monday, June 12 | 9:30 to 11:00 a.m. | Free!
RSVP to Julie Castonguay: [email protected]
For the third year in a row, six-year-old Max Sedmihradsky is taking his dad Andrew on a 600-km bike ride to help find a cure for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD), a condition Max was diagnosed with at a young age.
On Monday, June 12, Max’s Big Ride will stop at the uOttawa Faculty of Medicine to meet the researchers working to help find new treatments and a cure for DMD.
“Max is very excited about embarking on his third Max’s Big Ride, which will be a terrific adventure for him,” says Andrew. “I graduated from the University of Ottawa many years ago, but never imagined I would be returning this way.”
The ride aims to raise awareness and funds for DMD, a progressive genetic disorder that gradually weakens the body’s muscles. One of the most common forms of muscular dystrophy, DMD affects one in every 3500 boys. Kids with DMD are often dependent on the use of a wheelchair by the time they are 12, and most patients will succumb to the disease in their 20s or 30s.
Riding from Stittsville that morning, Max and Andrew will arrive at Roger Guindon Hall’s Atrium at 9:30 a.m. Guests will join the Faculty over coffee and snacks at a reception recognizing Max and Andrew for their hard work in raising awareness and funds for DMD.
As part of the reception, the Faculty will share highlights from their research efforts relating to DMD and everything they are doing to help kids like Max — giving Max and his dad a first-hand look at our world-leading neuromuscular research and clinical care here in Ottawa.
Guests will learn about the uOttawa Centre for Neuromuscular Disease (CNMD), which has Canada’s, and one of the world’s, largest concentrations of basic and clinical researchers dedicated to advancing the understanding of neuromuscular development and disease, and discovering novel therapies to treat these devastating disorders.
The CNMD is a member of the uOttawa Brain and Mind Research Institute, Ottawa’s largest collection of basic researchers and clinician scientists focused on brain and mind related health. The uOBMRI helps orchestrate the research efforts of its research members at the various uOttawa faculties, resident hospitals, affiliated networks and local research institutes.
Guests will also learn about the Ottawa Muscle and Nerve Institute (OMNI) opening at The Ottawa Hospital in the fall of 2017, a new clinic dedicated to dramatically enhancing neuromuscular translational research, clinical trials/research and clinical care in Ottawa.
Max’s Big Ride starts in Hamilton on Sunday, June 4, and the Faculty of Medicine will be their second-last stop before wrapping up their 600-km ride from Hamilton to Parliament Hill. Andrew will have pedalled the whole journey, with Max riding up front in the bike’s special cargo area.
“He’s is an active little guy who rides his trike to school and swims like a fish,” Andrew says of Max on the Ride’s website. “Unless we find a cure, he will never get a chance to do the things he dreams about doing in his future.”
To see Max and Andrew aboard their cargo bike and to learn more about their cause on the “Max’s Big Ride”, visit their website or view a video of their 2016 ride.
