{"id":452327,"date":"2026-05-16T18:30:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T18:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/452327\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T18:30:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T18:30:08","slug":"girl-climbs-croagh-patrick-to-raise-duchenne-awareness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/452327\/","title":{"rendered":"Girl climbs Croagh Patrick to raise Duchenne awareness"},"content":{"rendered":"

An eight-year-old girl from Kinvara, Co Galway, has completed her climb of Croagh Patrick to raise awareness and help fund research into the muscle wasting disease Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.<\/p>\n

Marilou Wheelock was moved by the story of 16-year-old twin brothers, George and Isaac Naughton from Roscommon.<\/p>\n

They were diagnosed with the condition when they were four years old. Their older brother Archie was also living with Duchenne and died in 2022 when he was 16.<\/p>\n

The boys’ parents, Padraic and Paula Naughton, are both mental health nurses. They set up the Join Our Boys Trust to provide their sons with specialised care and life-changing gene therapy treatments.<\/p>\n

“To be told that one of your children has a fatal disease that currently has no treatment or cure is absolutely devastating,” said Mr Naughton.<\/p>\n

“To be told that all three of your children have that same fatal disease is beyond comprehension.”<\/p>\n

\"Naughton
\nAll three Naughton brothers were diagnosed with Duchenne<\/p>\n

Ms Naughton said they don’t gain personally from the fundraising.<\/p>\n

“The trustees work on a voluntary basis and include a doctor and an accountant. What we’ve tried to do is turn what, for us, is a personal tragedy into a community initiative, and people have responded in the most amazing way,” she said.<\/p>\n

“To see an eight-year-old girl like Marilou do this for the twins is so life affirming. We need champions like her in every county.”<\/p>\n

Marilou had been hiking in the Burren as part of her training to scale Croagh Patrick and was thrilled to achieve her goal this afternoon.<\/p>\n

“I really wanted to help George and Isaac get their treatment. I saw my older brother and sister do fundraisers and I wanted to do the same,” she said.<\/p>\n

“My campaign is called Sweet Sixteen and I really want the boys to have the best life they can.”<\/p>\n

\"Marilou
\nMarilou completed her climb of Croagh Patrick this afternoon<\/p>\n

In late 2024, George and Isaac were invited to a pioneering clinical trial in the US. The trial specifically aims to test a treatment that can help protect their hearts and slow down cardiac damage.<\/p>\n

“A lot of research is being done internationally but it is very expensive because it is complicated and it\u2019s very slow,” said Ms Naughton.<\/p>\n

“That\u2019s why every initiative to raise awareness, like the Croagh Patrick climb today, is so much welcomed.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An eight-year-old girl from Kinvara, Co Galway, has completed her climb of Croagh Patrick to raise awareness and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":452328,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-452327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}