Brief Explanation

Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) is a muscle degenerating condition that affects 1 in 3500 Australian children - 99% boys. The Australian Government currently has no policy into research or clinical trials to find a cure for DMD. Money for research, trials and supporting families coping with rare diseases is all raised by charities, or paid for by the families themselves. Save Our Sons and Duchenne Foundation had nearly raised $1.75m, half the money needed to fund clinical trials that could put a stop to DMD. The petition is a call for the Australian Government to step up and match these funds. The Australian government has no policy on research into finding a cure for the debilitating disease which results in death by age 25. We built The Most Powerful Arm, a robot that would sign signatures via Facebook onto a petition in the handwriting of Jacob Lancaster, a young DMD sufferer who is no longer able to write. The writing was sampled from the last thing he was able to write - a mother's day card. Via a live stream, users would see their name being signed while a camera photographed their signature. Their signature was then posted on their Facebook feed triggering others to sign. The arm toured as a public installation prompting people to sign using their mobile devices. The Most Powerful Arm campaign was extended three times due to popular demand. With over 32,000 signatures, it is the most successful health-related petition ever in Australia and became the first Facebook petition to be tabled by the Senate. Facebook served as a filtering system ensuring people only signed once, and allowed us to verify information on user profiles. This information was used to validate the petition prior to submission to The Australian Government in Canberra. With no money for seeding, over $7.9 million of earned media was generated and over $24,000 of unprompted donations were made to Save Our Sons because of the campaign. Pharmaceutical company, The Summit, has now begun clinical trials into DMD. All of this has given much needed hope to boys suffering from DMD.