By most accounts, Shepherd Riddle is the typical 11-year-old boy — his grandma loves him and he likes exactly what you would expect. But it's what he doesn't like that you might not expect.

"I don't like the attention at all," said Shep, as his family and friends call him, who gets a lot of it at school. "It just annoys me, that every day I'm asked, 'Hey, why do you need a wheelchair?' 'Hey, why can you stand if you have a wheelchair?'"

Once he's in his wheelchair, his diagnosis becomes more obvious — he has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a disease that weakens the muscles over time.

"They get stiff," he explained. "And tired."

It's not just the arm and leg muscles either, making actions like walking or going up stairs difficult — the heart and lungs weaken over time, too.

"It was annihilating, because there's no cure," said Kate Miner Moebel, Shep's grandma, of the day the family found out about the diagnosis. "It's fatal."

The median life expectancy is only into the late twenties.

So, when that gut-punch of a life-altering event came into Shep's family, Moebel had to decide what her role would be.

"What I decided was, I will carry the hope," she said. For her, this means finding the beauty in every day.

"The beautiful is who Shep is," Moebel said. "Without a disease. Irregardless."

And that's not the only reason to smile — life expectancy has increased in the last decade.

"There are beautiful things happening around us in medicine," Moebel explained.

One of those things is the CureDuchenne clinic in Denton. It provides care to underserved and uninsured people with Duchenne.

"I think it's good that we're trying to find the cure," Shep said.

CureDuchenne's second annual Champions in Dallas fundraiser is on Oct. 2 with all proceeds from the event going back to the clinic.

On Thursday night, the nonprofit CureDuchenne will be hosting its second annual Champions in Dallas fundraiser.

"Having this event is just an expression of me carrying the hope for Shep," said Moebel. "And for 300,000 other little boys and young men."

It will take place at the Venue at Fig and feature a lineup of chefs and live music and you can buy tickets and learn more here.