Duchenne Awareness Day promotes awareness about Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) and Becker Muscular Dystrophy (BMD). Duchenne is a rare genetic disease that causes progressive muscle degeneration and weakness due to a nonfunctional protein called dystrophin, which helps keep muscle cells intact. This is believed to affect the ability of neurons to connect and share information, which may also be linked to learning and behavioural difficulties. Duchenne Awareness Day is observed on the 7th day of the 9th month because the DMD gene encoding for the dystrophin proteins consists of 79 exons (making it the longest human gene).