Triathlete to raise funds for brother with rare Down syndrome disorder
Nadia|July 23, 2021
by Nadia Bidarian
Johnny Byrne, 22, was spending his summer juggling a business internship and classes at UC Berkeley when he decided to add training for the 70.3 mile Santa Cruz Triathlon to his schedule. The Manhattan Beach resident’s motivation to do the triathlon was to raise research funds for Down syndrome disintegrative disorder (DSDD), a rare disease that causes individuals with Down syndrome to regress in their language and other skills. Byrne’s younger brother Thomas suffers from the disorder.
After learning how little is known about DSDD, Byrne decided to dedicate the triathlon he was training for to raise research funds for the disease. In May, Byrne created a fundraising page on the IronMan Foundation website, and since then, he has raised over $31,000 of his $50,000 fundraising goal. The Santa Cruz IronMan is September 12.