Jayden Skidmore was diagnosed with Duchenne’s muscular dystrophy – a condition that weakens the skeletal and heart muscles – at the age of five
A mum says she “blames herself” for her son’s rare genetic disease – which will leave him with the same abilities as a baby. Jayden Skidmore, 11, was diagnosed with Duchenne’s muscular dystrophy – a condition that weakens the skeletal and heart muscles – at the age of five.
Just two years after diagnosis, he stopped being able to walk – due to muscle weakness in his legs. The life expectancy for a child with Duchenne’s is 22 years, but mum Jade Skidmore, 33, and stepdad, Sean Dudley, 35, worry he won’t live to see 20.
Sean is currently hoping to take Jayden on a “trip of a lifetime” to Florida, US – and wants him to meet his hero, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson. In June 2025, he’ll be taking on one of the ‘ world ’s toughest challenges’ – which involves rock climbing, swimming and sprinting – to help raise funds.
Sean, a track isolation operative, from York, Yorkshire, said: “Time is of the essence – we want Jayden to live the best life he can, while he’s still here.
“He loves The Rock – because I got him into Jumanji. We want him to be able to meet him, we’ve been trying to reach out to him on social media. It would be Jayden’s dream to have a chat with him while in Florida.”
Jade – who cares for Jayden full-time – says she had a “normal” pregnancy with Jayden, and thought everything was fine when he hit his early milestones, like crawling and walking.
Looking back, she believes he started having problems with his motor skills between the ages of three to five. “He couldn’t walk properly,” she said. “When he got to four, he just kept falling over, all the time. We were so worried.”
Sean and Jade took the tot to see a child development specialist, who gave him a blood test. In September 2018, the results came back – Jayden’s creatine levels were at 1600 units-per-litre, and he was told the normal level was supposed to be in the “hundreds.”
This, as well as his symptoms, were enough to get him a diagnosis of Duchenne’s muscular dystrophy. Jade had a genetic blood test in the same month, which confirmed she’d unknowingly passed the gene down to Jayden.
“I just thought it was my fault,” she added. “I really blamed myself. But, it is what it is – there’s no way we could’ve known.”
In the years since his diagnosis, Jayden has completely lost the ability to walk. He takes daily steroids for his muscles, and heart medication for his weakened cardiovascular system.
Doctors have given him a decade left to live, and told he may have significant heart problems as he gets older. Jade said: “As Jayden’s mum, I’m absolutely devastated. He used to be able to play football, run and do little bits.
“But now he’s just in a wheelchair, full-time. Deterioration usually starts with the legs, then travels up the body. We’ve been told he could go at any age.”
Going on holiday to Florida has always been Jayden’s dream – and Sean is raising as much money as he can to get him there, in October 2025. He says it’ll cost between £7k to £10k just to fly the three of them over – plus another £1k to £2k in spending money. To do this, he’s taking on an “extremely demanding” physical challenge and hoping for sponsors.
“At the end of the day, Jayden can’t do any of this, so I’ve got no excuse,” he said. “I’m doing three mountain peaks, multiple times. There are laps I have to run, and lots of swimming – it’s basically to get as much done as I can in a 24-hour period.
“To train for it, I’m going out on my pushbike and doing three gym sessions a week. I’ll be thinking about Jayden when I’m doing the challenge – he’s a huge motivator.”
The family plan to take Jayden swimming with dolphins in Florida, as well as scuba diving and adapted rock climbing. But their main aim is to get him to meet The Rock.
Sean said: “It only takes one person in his circle to flag it up to him. I just want to get the word out there, as much as possible. Jayden may not be around for much longer, and I know this would be his dream.”