To HELP raise MONEY to find a cure for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, Danny Smith is giving up alcohol for a year.
YOU can help by DONATING or by getting SPONSORED to give up JUST FOR A DAY.
Many celebrities are joining Danny by giving up alcohol for a day. Join your favourite celebrity and donate today.
 
       
 
"My five year-old son Sam suffers from DMD - a fatal muscle wasting disease. He faces a short and difficult life unless we help scientists unearth a therapy, and eventually a cure..."
 
Get Involved
What is ‘The Longest Year Project' ?
  The Longest Year Project involves Danny Smith not drinking any alcohol in 2005, and inviting everyone in the country to join him for ONE day. He also asks that people send a donation to support research into Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD ), using any money they saved by abstaining for their nominated day. If you can get friends and work colleagues to sponsor you then please use the Longest Year sponsor form.

Danny's five-year-old son Sam has DMD. Danny hopes to use The Longest Year Project to both raise money for life-saving research, and to raise public awareness of this curable condition.

To promote The Longest Year Project, Danny has recruited an extensive list of celebrity names, all of whom will support his 365-day marathon with ONE day of abstinence of their own. Their names, and chosen dates, will go onto a virtual calendar for 2005 on the Longest Year website and a printed calendar will be sent to those donating £5 or more from December 1, 2004.

Both the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign and Parent Project UK are supporting The Longest Year Project, with all money raised to be allocated to DMD research.

How Can I Help?

You can enter your name onto the website calendar and make a donation by credit card. You can also send cheques payable to PPUK Ltd to:

Longest Year Project, Parent Project UK Muscular Dystrophy, PO Box 43178 London E17 3XA

If you donate more than £5 we will send you a printed calendar by post.

A few words from Danny Smith

“The challenge at the heart of The Longest Year Project is very simple: the long-term aim is something else. The challenge means I will not drink any alcohol in 2005. The long-term aim takes a bit more explaining.

“My son is dying because he has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD). He will not die if scientists can deliver an effective treatment, or even a cure, in the next decade. That means my task is to make the funding of DMD research, and the life-saving treatment that can come out of it, impossible for the government to ignore. That in turn means I need to capture the imagination of the public and make them engage with Sam, as a five-year-old, with everything to live for, and with me, as a father, who would gladly die to save his son's life. So, as a father, I won't drink any alcohol in 2005 and I ask everyone in the country to join me for ONE day. People can help five-year-old Sam by choosing their own day in 2005 to abstain, and support us both by either buying a calendar, or sending a donation equal to the money saved.

“In order to make my year off the beer ‘newsworthy', I have asked ‘celebrities' to chose one day to support the 365-day marathon: the response has been overwhelming. A sample of the ‘names' committed to the calendar includes a knight of the realm, cabinet ministers past and present, an Olympic champion, Premier League footballers, stars of stage and screen and a member of a mountain rescue team, just in case any of them get into trouble. With such a line-up, I hope to keep DMD in the public eye in 2005, and help move the British people a step closer to what is a very achievable goal. For there is no doubt that DMD can be cured in the next decade, and 100 boys a year, (including Sam by 2015), can be saved.