Asda staff are helping to make a nine-year-old boy's dreams come true.
William Magee, who will be 13 on Friday, August 19, was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy before his second birthday. His specific condition, Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), has forced him to use a wheelchair and he is dependent on others to feed him.
Despite his illness his mum Kelly, 42, wants to make his special day “the most memorable ever”. To celebrate becoming a teenager William, from Prenton, wants to open as many birthday cards as possible.
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Colleagues at the Arrowe Park Asda store are now supporting William in his wish to get as many birthday cards as possible before he turns 13 years old on Friday. Staff are now collecting cards and people can drop them at the customer service desk.
Posting on Facebook, a spokesperson for Asda said William has developed a close bond with the store's community champion Ian over the years after joining his mum Kelly on regular shopping trips. Kelly said: "When I asked him what he wanted he said 'birthday cards' – so that's what we aim to deliver.
"I want to make his birthday the most memorable ever. He did say he wanted 30,000 – so there's no pressure on me. I want to thank Ian and the colleagues at Asda Arrowe Park for all their support. It's such a friendly store and William loved going there when he was able to."
Speaking about William's condition, mum Kelly previously told the ECHO : “He is just a really delightful boy. William has got a cracking sense of humour. When William was diagnosed we thought [DMD] was a technical term for being flat footed. The specialist said to go home and enjoy [William].
“From a very young age we would talk about the future and the fact that he would use a wheelchair and how things would change. I remember him and I watching Ghostbusters, he just very openly asked me ‘am I going to die because of [DMD]'.
“It took me by surprise. I said yes DMD does take your life sooner but obviously nobody knows [about] the future."
DMD affects 100 boys per year while 2,500 people are living with the condition in the UK. According to the NHS it is one of the more common types of muscular dystrophy.
The last time Kelly made this appeal, for his sixth birthday, William ended up with 29,600 cards. Now his parents Kelly and Mike, 57, want to smash this record and have urged people to send letters to the Shankly Hotel, where they hope to "cover the floor" with them.
Anyone wanting to send William a card can either drop it into the customer service desk at Asda Arrowe Park, post it to the Shankly Hotel, Millennium House, 60 Victoria St, Liverpool L1 6JD, or via William's Facebook page, Savewilliam.
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