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Tour Duchenne will see a team of cyclists travel over 1200 grueling kilometers in 10 days from Sydney to Melbourne in March 2009.

The riders will start their journey at The Institute for Neuromuscular Research (INMR), based at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead, then make their way via Wollongong, Batemans Bay, down the picturesque south coast of New South Wales, through country Victoria and then onto Melbourne, where they will finish at the National Muscular Dystrophy Research Centre (NMDRC).

Before the riders begin the ‘Million Dollar Challenge’ they must pledge to raise at least $40,000 each (25 x $40,000 = $1,000,000). The money raised will then be donated to the two major Muscular Dystrophy research centres in Sydney (INMR) and Melbourne (NMDRC).

Although $40,000 per rider seems daunting, there will be various methods of raising this amount. Each rider will need to gain a corporate sponsor of at least $10,000 that will be added to the rider’s total. They will also need to gain one major prize that can be used in the ‘Million Dollar Challenge’ Charity Raffle. Tickets sold by each rider will also help contribute to the rider’s total to help them achieve their $40,000 goal.

Expat Aussie and as a Dad of a recently diagnosed son, Julian Thompson was determined to raise even more funds than was achieved through ChallengeMD! 2007 Cambodia. And while in training for Cambodia, Julian often thought about the ride and the effect that 25 people raising $40,000 could achieve. Thus Tour Duchenne was born.

Today, 26 riders have already registered for Tour Duchenne and have commenced fundraising to reach that personal target of $40,000. For some riders the task of rasing this amount will be difficult and most certainly comensurate with the difficulty of pedalling all the way from Sydney to Melbourne. That is why MDA is encouraging people to visit the rider page located here and select, then support a rider in his or her task of reaching that collective Million Dollars.

Some riders have already organised special events to coincide with their fundraising and Elliott Hann and Damien Fitzpatrick are holding their Singapore Golf Day at the fabulous Laguna Country Club. So, if you happen to be in Singapore on the Friday 12th December 2008, then click here to register for a fun day's golf in support of MD research.

For more details on Tour Duchenne (here) or on how you can assist the research efforts at INMR and NMDRC please contact Boris M Struk Executive Director MDA and Director NMDRC.

As more events are planned for the ride, we will publicise and promote them here at The Home of MDA and on the NMDRC website.