A SCIENTIST working to create a pill to treat muscular dystrophy is backing a fundraising run for research.

Professor Dame Kay Davies is urging people to sign up to the Oxford Town and Gown run in Oxford city centre on May 12.

The 10k run raises money for the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign, which is funding her work.

The degenerative muscle-wasting disease spreads to the legs and arms, and sufferers usually die in their 20s after their respiratory muscles fail.

Prof Davies, from Oxford University’s Department of Physiology Anatomy and Genetics, said: “I have been working on this for 30 years and I am not going to retire until I find an effective treatment for this terrible disease.

“We are so close now. Ten years ago I didn’t think there was a chance we would be at the stage we are now, it’s very exciting.

“We have found a drug which in mice shows substantial improvements. The question now is will it work with patients?

“What we are hoping it will do is significantly slow disease progression so that people suffering will go into a wheelchair a lot later than they do now.

“At the moment they need wheelchairs between the ages of nine and 12. “After our experiment with mice we could tell the difference between those which had MD and those which never had. “Mice have smaller muscles so it may not work as well. But if it works even half as well that will be spectacular.”

Prof Davies, from Canterbury Road, is exploring the use of a protein called utrophin. It could potentially be used as a substitute for dystrophin, which people living with Duchenne and Becker muscular dystrophy lack.

The substitute would take the form of a tablet taken orally. It is being developed at the chemistry labs and physiology department at the university in Parks Road.

The 61-year-old said although she ran the Oxford Town and Gown in the past, she doesn’t run anymore and sticks to cheers colleagues on from the sidelines en route.

The run – which is suppor-ted by the Oxford Mail – is in its 32nd year, starting and finishing in Parks Road.

Last year, more than 3,000 runners tackled the course, raising £100,000 for the cause.

This year, organisers hope to raise a record-breaking £110,000.

For information and to enter, visit townandgown10k.com