The Ward family have a massive personal mountain to climb – Jess and Dan’s son, Teddy, aged just 22 months, has been diagnosed with an extremely rare and life-limiting condition called mitochondrial disease. Now, Isle of Wight Rugby Club player and physio Dan has enlisted his clubmates to take on the Three Peaks Challenge to raise money for research into the disease. In September, they will attempt to conquer Scafell Pike, Ben Nevis and Snowdon and have set themselves an initial target of raising £10,000 for the Lily Foundation, a charity dedicated to funding vital research to find a cure and support families of children with mitochondrial disease. Dan Ward said:
“At 11am on January 24, we were told Teddy has the life-limiting mitochondrial disease, and an extremely rare defected gene (DNAJC19). This defected gene causes something called dilated cardiomyopathy, which is the degeneration of Teddy’s heart. “To the doctors’ knowledge, Teddy is one of only 55 children in the world to carry this, and the only known case in the UK, so we have limited research and unfortunately no cure. “We want to help Teddy and to give hope to all those affected by mitochondrial disease. “Please help The Lily Foundation in any way you can to keep fighting the most cruel of diseases, and we will carry on making sure that our Mito-Bear Teddy continues to thrive, be the happiest little boy, and live the best of lives.”
With around 2billion children in the the world aged 0-14, Teddy’s condition affects just 0.00000275%. 
As well as Dan, the IW Rugby Club Rangers who have signed up to take on the challenge are brothers Luke and Dave Blackman, James Bradshaw, George Huish, Claire Mumford, Michael Joyce, Nick Blyth, Kieran Leahy and Sam McQueen. The club is also raising funds to give the Ward family the chance to make memories with Teddy and is holding a race night at its Wootton HQ on 19th July. Dan added:
“It is at times like this you find out who your friends are, and the love and support we have had not only from our rugby family, but the whole island community has been so heartening.”
You can donate to Team Teddy on their JustGiving page at https://www.justgiving.com/team/rangerstakeonthe3peaks.
Good luck to the family and their little boy. A very worrying illness let’s hope people can find it in their hearts and wallets to aid this charity.
First step.Stop the inbreeding. The genes brake down after many generations. Causing these problems.
What a heartless p****. I really hope that karma comes and smacks you and your family in the face!! Didn’t even have the balls to put your name on there either!