Living with Becker's Muscular Dystrophy: Brad's Story

Welcome to My Becker's Story where I share my personal story of growing up with Becker's Muscular Dystrophy. My only aim is to help raise awareness of Muscular Dystrophy and the issues those with disabilities face. My story represents the truth of my life and living with a muscle-wasting disorder and I hope to take what I have been through in life and somehow use it to help others going through a similar situation. After all, I truly believe we can all learn a lot from each others stories.

Another reason for sharing my story is to help make more people aware of Muscular Dystrophy, a rare muscle-wasting disorder that is often confused with Multiple Sclerosis. A simple mistake some people make which leads to many of us constantly finding ourselves having to explain to people that we don't have Multiple Sclerosis. So I started My Becker's Story to help give people a better understanding of what it is like living with Becker’s Muscular Dystrophy.

So what is Becker’s Muscular Dystrophy?

Becker Muscular Dystrophy also known as BMD is a rare genetic condition mainly affecting males. It causes progressive muscle weakness and leads to difficulties in walking, running and standing for a long period of time. Other issues include difficulty getting up from a low seated position and eventually the inability to climb steps and stairs. Other issues may include frequent falls and fatigue. The progression of BMD is mild in some cases and more severe in others. Eventually men living with BMD will lose the ability to walk and require the use of a wheelchair. This can happen anytime between our 20's and 50's or in some cases even later in life. There is currently no cure for any form of Muscular Dystrophy including Becker’s.

So where do I begin?

Well like every story, it’s always best to start at the beginning, when my life was changed forever, and this was in the mid to late 80’s when I was just 10 years old and was first diagnosed with Becker's Muscular Dystrophy. You see in the years before my diagnosis my parents had me join the local soccer team, and it didn’t take long for them to notice that I was having some issues keeping up with other children. I was struggling, having issues running from one end of the field to the other; I just could not keep up. I even remember a time once during gym class when we had to run from one end of the gym and back, I really hated it because every time we had to do it I was always the one finishing last. As a child this was very frustrating for me, especially learning at such a young age that running was something that was going to be difficult for me. And this is just the beginning of My Becker’s Story.

Please (Click Here) for Part 2

“What led to my diagnosis of Becker’s Muscular Dystrophy.”