EASTER may have just gone but devoted mum Karen Jessop is busy organising a second Christmas for her Santa mad son who suffers from a life limiting illness, – and she’s appealing to 2,500 people to help.

Karen is planning to mark Christmas twice this year with the summer festive season on June 16.

Nine year-old Joshua suffers from Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a devastating muscle wasting disease which affects boys, causing progressive and extreme ongoing weakness. His life expectancy is from adolescence to early adulthood.

Because Joshua will have a lot less Christmases than most people, Karen and husband Alan, from Brompton on Swale, near Richmond, decided they should have two a year, and double up on the celebrations.

They’re hoping 2,500 people will help them help mark the event, by sending Christmas cards to Joshua. It will also be a symbolic gesture, representing one for every child in the country who suffers from the muscle wasting disease.

A family fundraising event will also be held at Richmond Cricket Club on the day to raise funds to take Joshua to Lapland to see the real Santa.

Mrs Jessop said:“He would be absolutely over the moon. He has a Christmas bell, just like the one on the Polar Express and totally believes in Santa, although he tells me many others his age aren’t so convinced.

“Joshua has been helping with a drugs trial at the Great North Children’s Hospital in Newcastle and it can be really hard for him.

"The trials are to help children in the future, we have to go up once a month and it means a lot of blood tests and scans, the staff asked him if he would be prepared to do it and he said yes if it would help others.

“We want to make life as special as possible for him, with a life limiting condition Joshua won’t see as many Christmases as many so why not celebrate in June too?

"He was diagnosed with Duchenne on June 16, 2010 and around that time we try to do something special for him, so the family event at the cricket club seemed like the ideal idea."

And Karen says there is support for a summer Christmas, adding: “In 2008, astronomer Dave Reneke argued that Jesus was born in the summer. The Star of Bethlehem, Reneke told the New Scientist, may have been Venus and Jupiter coming together to form a bright light in the sky.

"Using computer models, Reneke determined that this rare event occurred on June 17, in the year 2 BC, so who knows maybe we are onto something.

“Either way any help people can give would be really appreciated either by sending a card or supporting the family fundraising event.”

Cards can be send to Wackadayz, Station road, Brompton on Swale, North Yorkshire, DL10 7SQ. His story, Journey with Joshua, is on Facebook.