Will Ungerer isn’t a typical fourth-grader.
The 10-year-old from Midlothian, Va., plays tag with his friends and swims in the ocean. “I think his peers would describe him as someone who is kind, sweet and funny, and supersmart,” says his mother, Sheila Ungerer. He won a countywide citizenship award and was named classroom student of the year.
But “he’s not a really fast runner,” his peers might say. “He doesn’t really run.” Will was born with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a genetic disease that causes muscles throughout the body to break down over time. That includes not only skeletal muscles, but also the heart and diaphragm, which controls breathing. Eventually
→ Continue reading at Science News