Jordan Woods, 22: Wanted career in national security

When his arms started to deteriorate, it was difficult for the sports fan to don a shirt. One day, Jackie Woods, his mother, witnessed his struggle. She offered a hand.

"No, Mom," he told her. "If I don't use it, I will lose it."

"We don't like to say he struggled with the disease because he never got to that point," his mother said. "Most children [with DMD] have people taking care of them by the time they are 18. He never had that."

Perhaps some credit is due to a clinical trial that involved myoblast transfer therapy. Healthy muscle cells from a donor -- in Mr. Woods' case, those of a cousin -- were injected into his lower body.  He took anti-rejection drugs to prevent rejection of the donor muscle cells.

"When we brought him back home," his mother said, "he was able to walk up the stairs without holding the rails. Before, he would have had to use the stairwell to pull himself up, one leg at a time."

Mr. Woods was a 2005 graduate of Collins Hill High, where he missed one day of school in four years. He was an Eagle Scout. He founded the Collins Hill chapter of Teenage Republicans. In 2006, he was state recipient of the Muscular Dystrophy Association's Personal Achievement Award.

In 2008, he interned for the offices of Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas and Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin. At UGA, the 2009 grad majored in international affairs.

"He was a prodigy," said family friend Lisa Holmes of Lawrenceville. "That's all I can say. I think everybody is in shock because he was so alive."

Mr. Woods' living quarters in his parents' basement was bedecked with a game room and a big-screen TV.  It's where he died Saturday,  in his wheelchair, from suspected complications of DMD. He was 22.

His funeral will be held at 11 a.m. Wednesday at Catholic Church of Saint Monica in Duluth. McDonald and Son Funeral Home & Crematory of Cumming is in charge of arrangements.

Mr. Woods had plans to pursue a UGA master's degree in international affairs. He wanted to work in national security, notably foreign policy. When the Sept. 11, 2001, U.S. terrorist attacks took place, he changed.

"The 9/11 attacks may have strengthened his beliefs," his mother said. "Before that, he had always talked about going into genetics, and as a younger kid, he talked about curing his own disease."

For his Scout project, Mr. Woods and others made disability parking more visible at Collins Hill High. They repainted stripes and put stop signs on columns near ramps to prevent blockage.

In 2007, Quest Extra, an online publication of the Muscular Dystrophy Association, interviewed Mr. Woods for a story about handicapped accessibility. He talked about poorly designed sidewalk curb cuts and building access.

"Business building codes that address aisle width should have to take into account the reduced access width" that occurs when other diners at tables back their chairs to the aisle, he said at the time. "The code should factor in six to 12 inches extra so the aisle is wide enough, even if I'm going between tables."

Additional survivors include his father, David Woods of Suwanee; a sister, Amanda Woods of Athens; paternal grandparents, Richard and Joanne Woods of Snellville; and maternal grandparents, Larry and Cecile Major of Alpharetta.