THE brave parents of a little boy suffering with a rare muscle-wasting disease are helping to fund new research into the condition.

Little Stanley Newman, six, has struggled with a rare form of muscular dystrophy since a shock diagnosis when he was one.

Doctors told devastated dad, Rob, and mum, Laura, Stanley will never take his first steps.

The young fighter is unlikely to see his 16th birthday.

The Newman family set up Stanley’s Heroes to raise money for research through the charity Muscular Dystrophy UK.

Rob, who works as a fireman, has spent the past two years fundraising through his job at Clacton Fire Station.

The lifesaving team take some time out from putting out blazes to take on car washes, open days and Santa’s Grotto events.

Now Rob is hoping a new research project will forge a way forward in treating the incurable disease. He said: “When they talk about future projects it always makes me excited, in that there’s more to come.

“From these initial steps we can move forward.”

The project is one of ten funded by a Muscular Dystrophy UK research grant totalling £1.2 million.

Stanley’s parents are still hopeful a cure can be found.

Muscular dystrophy is a progressive condition, caused by mutations in the genes that are responsible for the structure and functioning of a person’s muscles. There are many different types of the condition, each with different symptoms.

Not all types cause severe disability and many don’t affect life expectancy.

Some types eventually affect the heart or the muscles used for breathing, at which point the condition becomes life-threatening.

There is no cure, but treatment can help to manage many of the symptoms.

The Newmans are one of three UK families funding the project through Muscular Dystrophy UK.

The project will be led by Dr Gisèle Bonne, who will look at all the other genetic changes which alter the severity of the condition, known as modifiers.

Thanking the families for their support, she said: “We would really like to thank all the families for their fundraising and we hope we will be able to get positive results from this project. “This won’t create a cure or modify their lifestyle in two or five years from now, but we shall know the condition better and it can help us go further in therapeutic approaches.”