THE family of a five-year-old boy who suffers from progressive muscle weakness has raised more than £15,000 in a bid to help find a cure for him.

Harrison Loosen was diagnosed with Becker muscular dystrophy, which causes slow progressive muscle weakness of the legs and pelvis in November 2015.

Now a year later since his mum Julie and dad Phil set up the Hope4Harrison campaign, the family has raised £15,160 which will be donated to Muscular Dystrophy UK.

Mr Loosen told the Gazette: “We are really happy with how much we have managed to raise throughout the year.

“The generosity of strangers as well as people we know has just been incredible.”

The Loosen family, who live in Wellington Crescent, Baughurst, set up Hope4Harrison in a bid to raise £5,000 per year to help Muscular Dystrophy UK with the work it does to provide support to families with a family member with MD.

However, throughout the year people have been raising money through dance-a-thons, static bike rides, pub quizzes and sky dives.

The showpiece is a six-a-side football tournament which Mr Loosen aims to turn into an annual event to triple that target.

“We’ve already had lots of people say they want to do different fundraising events in 2017,” he added.

“My wife is planning on doing a sky dive and my mum has already said that Hope4Harrison will be her work’s chosen charity for the year.”

For the Burnham Copse pupil, he may want to get more involved in some of the events, but understands his limits, but Mr Loosen explains he knows all the money is going towards helping find a cure.

He added: “Harrison knows that he can’t do some of the things people who are fundraising for him can.

“But he still has his involvement being at all the events and handing out medals.”

Visit musculardystrophyuk. org/get-involved/familyfunds/ funds/hope4harrison.