THE father of a youngster who is unlikely to live past the age of 25 is urging people to sponsor his friends who are taking part in this year's Ironman triathlon.

Aaron Richardson's son Tyler has Duchenne muscular dystrophy, an inherited genetic condition that gradually causes the muscles to weaken, leading to disability and premature death.

His friends Kirk Hilton, aged 28, and Ashley Lowe, aged 27, will be swimming, cycling and running in the annual event for 'Team Tyler' — raising money for Duchenne Now.

Mr Richardson, who first spoke about his son’s condition in The Bolton News in 2013, is overwhelmed with the support for his son and said father and son will be cheering the men on at the event, which is taking place on July 19.

He said: “Muscular dystrophy is such an underfunded cause it’s not moving as fast as it could be, treatment-wise. So I was overwhelmed when Kirk and Ash said they’d do Ironman for the charity. They got in touch at Christmas time and said they’d do it in Tyler's name to help raise money towards research into it.”

The average age for a sufferer to live is 25. Tyler, who attends St Joseph’s The Worker in Irlam, is now seven.

Mr Richardson, from Kearsley, said: “He’s doing ok but he is at the age now where he is starting to ask questions about his health. He said to me the other week that he couldn’t wait until he got older and his legs got stronger — that really upset me because this won’t happen.

“We are telling him that he has poorly muscles because he can get frustrated when he can’t keep up with the other children. He’s slowing down a lot. He had pneumonia at Christmas time and had to go to hospital.

“He loves playing Minecraft at the moment, and we’re trying to get him to kick a football about with his brother Bailey, although he knows he isn’t as good as he wants to be.

“He’s doing ok at school, although at the end of each day he is really tired. He’s on steroids at the moment and we use his wheelchair quite a bit but we encourage him to walk as much as possible so he doesn’t get too used to it.”

Mr Lowe, a driver in the Royal Logistics Corps who lives in Halliwell, added: "We've known Aaron for a while now and we've wanted to do Ironman for years, so thought it'd be really good to do it for Tyler."

To donate, visit justgiving.com/ASHandKIRKareIRONMEN or text TYLR58 and £ amount to 70070.