Top jockey opens up about sacrificing his career so his six-year-old son can live for ‘just one more day’ as he battles deadly and incurable disease
- Adrian Layt has moved his family north to help with his son’s illness
- Jockey’s son Liam has a rare, incurable genetic condition
- Liam is currently doing well and enjoying the warmer climate
Talented jockey Adrian Layt has opened up about his son’s debilitating illness and how he is sacrificing his career so the six-year-old can live longer – ‘even if just for a day’.
Layt and his wife Caolina recently made the choice to quit their lives in Sydney and move to Townsville in far north Queensland.
The reason for the change is that the warmer climate benefits their son Liam’s illness and quality of life.
Liam has a rare genetic condition called Duchenne muscular dystrophy, which causes a progressive loss of muscle function and mainly affects young boys.
Veteran jockey Adrian Layt (pictured) has spoken about his son’s debilitating illness and how he is putting his family first so the six-year-old can live longer
Layt envisioned himself competing at Royal Randwick Racecourse in 2021
“I hope our move to Queensland will extend Liam’s life, even if just for a day. Because it will be a day longer than we would have had with him,” Adrian shared News Corp.
‘Even if it only extends his mobility, it will have been worth it.
‘We went to Brisbane last week for some tests and the specialists said everything went well.
“The move to Townsville has been a good one and the specialists told us to just keep doing what we were doing.
‘Right now, Liam’s body isn’t breaking down and he’s growing up like a normal child for now.
Liam’s brothers Rocko and Charlie have also settled into their new environment well and Liam is doing well in group 1 at school.
“The life expectancy for this varies, it just depends on how the heart handles it,” says Layt.
‘People usually die from heart failure, because the heart is a muscle and it slowly weakens over time.
Layt says the area further north was a good choice for his son, even though there wasn’t much work for him to do
“We’re told we (Liam lives to) 25-30 years old, if he’s lucky. It’s very difficult to understand.’
Layt, who has ridden more than 630 winners in his career, unfortunately cannot find as much work in Townsville as he can in NSW, so he is temporarily moving to Kembla Grange to ride for a month before reuniting with his family.
Layt tells his story so that other parents can have their child examined if they think something is wrong.
“Liam kept falling over and we thought he was clumsy,” Layt recalls.
‘The doctor ran some tests to see if they could detect anything, and then they sent his blood and ran through all the genetics.
‘When we found out, it was just terrible.
‘When we got the report back from the doctors, I was on the way to Tuncurry and I was crying a lot.
‘My main message to others is that if you have a little one who walks slowly or is always clumsy, get him checked.
“They say the sooner you start, the better things can be, and that’s because you can take care of them at a young age.”