Members of IMJIN Company, 2 Royal Irish, stationed in Afghanistan, won't be striking out across country, but will saddle up to brave the 45 degree heat aboard exercise bikes as they pedal the equivalent number of miles to raise cash for SAM (Struggle Against Muscular dystrophy).

Meanwhile, closer to home, a Dromara woman whose son has just been diagnosed with MD is among those to have joined Sam and his mum Tracy in Westminster for a parliamentary lobby organised by Action Duchenne.

The local woman got in touch with Tracy after reading about the Please Fix Sam Appeal in The Leader and joined her in heading off to London on Monday.

We recently reported how Sam, who turns two years-old in August, suffers from muscular dystrophy, a progressive muscle-wasting disease which predominantly affects boys, while his parents are hoping lengthy investigations will diagnose the milder Becker type of the disease rather than the Duchenne variant, thereby buying more time in which to find treatment or cure.

Struck by the "pitiful lack of funding for research into this disease", Sam's family rallied friends and colleagues and set up their own charity in his name.

In Afghanistan, RIR soldiers heard of the SAM appeal via a morale parcel sent out to one of the lads by his mum and immediately emailed the local charity with plans to raise funds and awareness.

The soldiers are also donating to the appeal all the money raised from their weekly haircuts.

Ahead of leaving for London Tracy again appealed for support.

"Please check the www.pleasefixsam.com website," she said. "We have made some improvements to the site and also uploaded all of our fundraising activities planned for the year ahead.

"There is also a section 'How Can I Help' where we are encouraging everyone to get involved - even by something as simple as telling five people about the site and the campaign to help spread the word."

Tracy said people could also help by writing to their MPs and would find on the website a proforma and a link to tell them who their MP is in the event that they didn't know (http://www.pleasefixsam.com/help.asp).

"It will take only two minutes of your time and the cost of a stamp," she said. "Unfortunately this terrible disease is touching more lives and threatening the futures of more little boys, so it is imperative that we persuade the government to allocate more funds to research and that we continue the Struggle Against Muscular Dystrophy in the hope that we can give these little boys the hope of a future."