My lovely wife was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease some years ago. For those who don’t know, it's a degenerative disease affecting your whole body in so many ways, slowly attacking and breaking down the body systems. Every day my wife relentlessly and gallantly struggles through it. She is not alone, there are 145,000 in the UK living with Parkinson’s and every hour 2 more are diagnosed, the numbers are rising.

Parkinson’s UK are funding research that can give hope for the future. They need better treatments now. Not in 10 years. Not in 20 years. That’s why Parkinson’s UK are pushing to deliver a new treatment by the end of 2024. They invest more into Parkinson’s research than any other non-commercial funder in Europe. 

I am in my 80's with many ageing issues but still active and able to support her. My challenge is to sail my small 34 ft Yacht around Britain (some 2000 miles) and round the most northerly point of the British Isles a rock called Muckle Flugga (nearer to Norway than mainland Scotland) in four weeks. It’s a tough one, I’ll visit remote locations where you can see 4 seasons of weather in one day with tricky navigation and lots of overnight sailing. André Usborne, a good friend and sailor will stay with me for the whole journey but, we will be joined at various stages to get through the tricky bits of the journey by Kit Noble (who also has Parkinson’s) John Smith, Steve Burton and my grandson Sam. 

I want to raise as much as I can in donations and am reaching out to everyone to support my challenging sail. Seago Yachting are my amazing sponsors.

Follow me on the Marine Traffic App, on your phone and search for ‘Second Wind UK’ to follow us. Please come and see us when we pull in for a rest!  We leave Yarmouth Isle of Wight on Tuesday May 24^th 0600 hrs and with a fair wind, will be back (via London) on 3^rd July.