Living
with Becker -members experiences with
Becker
“An
unexamined life is not worth living”.-Socrates
“And
in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your
years.” Abraham Lincoln
We all
have something we can give that can help others –our life experiences, why not
share your experiences of growing up with BMD on the Becker United site.
Most of these stories will be all too familiar to the older ones of us, all these stories are honest we don’t edit out bits we don’t like they are true experiences of life with Becker. We hope that these stories will encourage but as I said they are honest and because of this some of these stories may seem a bit disheartening to parents of young children with Becker MD or those just diagnosed with it. We know that at lot of the things included in this section may be considered a bit negative in some ways as they deal with how we have coped with life but is we can pass on how we coped so that this may help others starting to go through things we have already coped with.
Becker MD was first diagnosed as such in about 1956 this doesn’t mean that it suddenly appeared in 1956 because at that time it would have been diagnosed as some other muscular condition. If my parents had known as a youngster what I suffered from I feel that my condition would not have been as bad as it is now. I could have exercised better and been able to walk better if I had known sooner about my condition. When muscle is not there you can’t build it up, yes Becker MD will cause muscle to waste but exercise helps you keep the muscle you have. On the negative side the wrong type of exercise can be just as bad and cause muscle tears and make the condition worse. I myself have a walk of a mile or more as my exercise, another member receives exercise with hydrotherapy another may swim but it all keeps you active. One thing I learnt is that no two people with Becker are exactly the same many are similar but none exactly the same.
I am not medically qualified and as everyone
is different we cannot all do the same things if you are unsure ask your own
specialist first about what you can do.
I was 49 in May 2008, I still go out walking I do still
fall as I did last week giving myself a few bruises and grazes but that’s par
for the course and I won’t let that put me off doing the things I enjoy.
Tim
Members Life stories
We also have taken stories from Target MD of or by people
with Becker, with permission from Target MD.
There are also a few others I
remember seeing but as yet have not found,
Quick off the
draw (Dan Cundall Summer 2006)
Active in the
extreme (James Church Autumn 2006)
Out and about
–Shaun Fisher visited Manchester Utd in 2003
If you want to submit yours please Email your story to