by Angela Cole

acole@thekmgroup.co.uk

Joan Anderton has more reasons than most to feel proud of her last 50 years.
Not only is the mum-of-two a director of her own company, but she’s done so during time the doctors said she’d never have.
In fact the 64-year-old was told she probably wouldn’t live past 15.
But nearly five decades later, Joan from Maidstone has made every one of her extra years count.
She was born with Limb-girdle muscular dystrophy – a extremely rare form of the muscle-wasting disorder which affects between 1,000 and 1,400 people in the UK and causes weakness in the shoulder and pelvic girdle.
Movement problems challenged her childhood, and after a diagnosis at the age of 12, frequent visits to doctors marked the next few years.
Then a rough patch during her teenage years, when “lots of prayers were said” seemed to indicate predictions of not reaching adulthood would come true.
But Joan refused to be beaten and pushed forward with a determination to live life to the full.
Pain
Despite never knowing when the condition would reach the point where she needed help getting around, Joan was only confined to a wheelchair 16 years ago.
Now, she confesses to being in a lot of pain.
On average it takes her two hours from waking at her home in Downswood to get to her desk a few miles away at Invicta Valves on the Park Wood Industrial Estate, Maidstone, where she works with children Mark and Keeley. But, even taking all the struggles into consideration, Joan knows her life has been good.
“I have just been very lucky,” she said.
“To be honest, the difficulties that you have in overcoming a disability actually make other challenges in life appear quite easy.”
Inspired by their mum’s determination, Mark and Keeley, with workmate Maria Gentle, will be running the London Marathon for the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign on April 22.
“I am very proud of them. They are really training hard,” she said.
“I am really lucky because I can afford an electric power chair and things like that.
“There are other people who may not be able to afford these things; you think of those little boys who can’t get equipment to help them.”
Mark said that despite never attempting a marathon before, he and Keeley wanted to do it for their mum.
“She could have given up but she’s always invested in other people and by doing this we can give something back for her,” he said. To sponsor them visit http://justgiving.com/milesformum