I have long been a fan of running; both as a way to clear my head, get out to explore and also to challenge myself in road running races. One of the highlights of this was obtaining a Good-for-Age entry for the 2018 London Marathon. Unfortunately, in the race I was badly affected by a mysterious right leg spasm which had developed during training and made it an uncomfortable and very frustrating run.

Unfortunately in 2021 after experiencing further weird symptoms, this eventually led to me being diagnosed with Young Onset Parkinson’s Disease. This has obviously been a real shock but I am very grateful that my symptoms are and still remain relatively mild, for now. My family have been amazingly supportive through this challenging journey and particularly my wife Sarah, who has repeatedly encouraged me to remain positive and not let this thing define my life. While I realise my symptoms will get worse over time, since there is still no clinically proven cure or medicinal treatment to slow the progression, I do however know it is clinically recognised that the best thing to slow progression and improve symptoms is lots of physical activity. This fact makes me very happy.

I’m also very pleased that my PD medication has improved my right leg complaint – so I can run semi-normally again! However, I now have a new and even greater motivation...

In light of all of this, I have decided to give the London Marathon another try and in the process this time to raise much-needed funds for the work of Cure Parkinson’s as they strive to get to the bottom of it all. I hope my efforts will also help to highlight the critical importance for PD sufferers to take regular physical exercise to help improve their symptoms and slow progression of this as-yet incurable degenerative disease.

We've also discovered that there was no Guinness World Record for the fastest marathon run by a male with Parkinson's Disease... Guinness have now set this up as a new category and I’m hoping to be the first to challenge this record at the 2025 London Marathon, which adds an even greater purpose to my ongoing training preparations.

Thanks all!