Team summits Mt. Rainier

Corona del Mar resident Paul Miller curled up into a ball and cried when he reached the summit of Mt. Rainier earlier this week in Pierce County, Wash.

“I broke down sobbing — this is the type of thing I thought I would be able to do with my son one day,” he said.

Miller was reading a book about a mountain climber when his son, now 12, was diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy seven years ago.

He threw the book away, he remembers, after he found out his son would never be able to do things like hike and camp.

A terminal genetic disease, Duchenne muscular dystrophy attacks and weakens the muscles of young boys and has no cure.

Miller was one of six members of the Newport Beach-based nonprofit CureDuchenne out of a team of 12 who reached the summit of Mt. Rainier about 7 a.m. Tuesday.

The team began its final push up the mountain about 1 a.m. after catching a few hours of sleep in a wooden shed without heat halfway up the mountain.

CureDuchenne raises money to fund medical research to find new treatments for the disease. Debra and Paul Miller founded CureDuchenne after their son was diagnosed.

Debra Miller trained for months to ready herself for the climb.

She made it as far as Camp Muir, about 10,000 feet above sea level on the southeastern flank of Mount Rainier.

The pace of the climb proved too much for her, but she said she is proud that six people from the CureDuchenne team had reached the summit.

“People tell me if someone from your team summits, it’s like you all made it,” she said.

Watching her husband, along with the rest of the team, set out without her for the summit in the dark was difficult, she said.

“I watched their headlights getting dimmer and dimmer as they set out across the field and I thought, ‘I really love my husband — I really care about all these guys,’” she said.

Donations for the climbers, who set out to raise $1 for scaling each foot of the more than 14,000-foot mountain, are still pouring in, but Debra Miller estimates the team will raise as much as $173,000 from the trip.

Newport Beach resident Mindy Cameron, whose 8-year-old has Duchenne muscular dystrophy, also made it to Camp Muir as part of the CureDuchenne climbing team.

“It was definitely hard work, but thinking of our sons kept us going,” Cameron said.

The rigorous climb made her legs feel like rubber, but she imagined that is how her son feels at times.

“I often wonder what [Duchenne muscular dystrophy] physically feels like. A lot of times they can’t really tell us,” Cameron said.

“I imagine their legs feel tired and heavy too.”

How To Help

For more information on CureDuchenne or to make a donation to the climbing team, visit www.cureduchenne.org

Checks or money orders also may be mailed to

CureDuchenne

3334 E. Coast Hwy. No. 157

Corona Del Mar, CA 92625