I was diagnosed with Parkinson's at the age of 47. I knew nothing about it and slowly declined over the next 5 years. At which point I had the opportunity to take part in the phase 2 GDNF clinical trial held in Bristol, which set out to discover if GDNF could slow, halt or reverse the progression of Parkinson's.

By the time the trial had finished my Parkinson's had improved by 71%, my UPDRS off medication score had improved from 42 to 14. My Parkinson's had indeed been reversed and now 4 years after my last infusion I am still improved.

Despite all these facts the trial failed. I was not alone as most of the participants showed some form of improvement and yet the scientific world dismissed our improvements because they were difficult to quantify. Now after several years of campaigning by the 'GDNF Participants  Group' things are starting to change. Neurotrophic factors, which include GDNF, are moving out of the doldrums.

The GDNF Participants'  Unifying Challenge in support of Neurotrophic factors brings the trial participants, and individuals who all have a link to world of Parkinson's together with Parkinson's UK, Funding Neuro and The Cure Parkinson's Trust to form a united front to raise funds and awareness of neurotrophic factors. which is where we all agree that the cure is waiting to be found.

Please dig deep when you donate as we need more research undertaken now to ensure that the cure is found as quickly as possible, so that people with Parkinson's can receive this treatment as soon as possible.

For this challenge Anna, my lovely wife, and i have decided to cover the100 miles by walking on the footpaths around our home and in the process discover a forgotten history we never knew about despite living locally all our lives. This will be with the help of our family who have provided help and support throughout all of our adventures. We shall also be dancing and counting the steps to add to our total, we have been dancing for around 2 years now and it is important to us because simply without GDNF it is a pleasure that we would never have experienced, if you look in the gallery there are a few pictures of us recently practicing. We have also got the additional back up of an exercise bike to cover the distance in the event of bad weather or covid 19 restrictions still being in place.

Also in the gallery are  a couple of pictures of me just after the surgery and some infusion room images to give you a taste of our experiences.

Update as of 13th February

In view of the current and potential Covid 19 restrictions the Challenge Working Group have decided to postpone the challenge until September in the hope of that the restrictions imposed on all of us will be reduced or possibly removed.
In recognition of the faith all of you have bestowed upon the Challenge and the hope it gives for the future, I have set myself an additional personal challenge.
Dancing was always going to play a small part in my Challenge, together with my lovely wife Anna we will attempt to cover an additional 100 miles by dancing. This will take place between the original Challenge start date 1st April and the new start date 1st September, a period of 22 weeks, during our practice sessions we usually manage around 2 - 2.5 miles between us every week. So as you can see it will be a Challenge.

This is a personal challenge in addition to the GDNF Participants Unifying Challenge.