One day, in late February 2022, my legs suddenly stopped working. The GP considered that the problem might be muscular-skeletal and put in place to arrange for an MRI of my spine. At this stage, there was no consideration of urgency – I could still walk short distances and seemed otherwise in good health. It should be noted here that condition that I was eventually diagnosed with is very rare and is also very difficult to diagnose.

Over the next few months, I had some good days and some bad days but in early May, I noticed a further deterioration – I couldn’t lift my arms very high. Things progressed very quickly at that point, I started to lose my balance, my general strength level fell quickly, and it was obvious that something was very wrong.

I was admitted to Addenbrooke's on Monday May 30th. One of the first doctors to see me admitted that it wasn’t clear what was wrong with me and that I would shortly become one of the most-tested patients in the hospital. In a relatively short time I was to have a brain scan; heart scan; lumbar puncture; full body scan; kidney biopsy; chest X-Ray; MRI of the lumbar region; MRI of neck and spine; nerve conduction tests and a huge amounts of blood tests were also taken.

Things worsened, and by the Thursday I had rapidly lost any strength that I had left. At this time, the Neurology team led by Dr Gunawardana had taken a strong interest in my case and had started to come up with a strong working theory of the disease/condition that I was eventually to be diagnosed with, which was CIDP (Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy). In fact, I had come down with an extremely rare variant of this very rare condition.

By the Saturday I was completely paralysed and was in a very bad shape. I ended up spending over a month in Addenbrooke's.

CIDP is an incredibly rare and very serious disease. There are perhaps 500 people in the UK that have been diagnosed and live with this awful disease. My own disease is much rarer, with only a handful of people having been known to have suffered from my particular variant. Recovery is not guaranteed and many people are left with severe mobility problems and have to also live with awful nerve pain.

Amazingly, my own recovery has progressed at an unexpectedly high rate. The just-in-time diagnosis had stopped any major / critical damage being done to my nerves. Indeed, if the treatment had been delayed by only a few days then my nerves would have died off and my paralysis would not have been a short-term problem. Through a combination of IVIG, high-dose steroids and an infusion of Rituximab my body has stopped producing the extra proteins that had confused my body into attacking itself. My mobility is back to normal and the debilitating nerve-pain has gone. The Rituximab has left me immunocompromised for the next 4 months but apart from that my health seems to be in a very good place and I am back, pretty much, to the condition that I was in before I developed this condition. In short, my recovery is nothing short of a modern-day miracle and is testament to the wonderful care that I was provided with from everyone at Addenbrooke's.

One side-effect, though, is that I have gained quite a lot of weight due to the high dosage of steroids that I was placed on. Over the next 6 months (November 1st to April 30th), I plan to cycle most days on my spin bike. My target is to cycle a total of 2600 miles - my virtual trip will take me from Potton to Munich, then up to Leipzig and then to return back to Potton (via lots of other places in Europe). I will provide weekly updates as to my virtual progress. Physically, my aim is to lose two stone in weight over this time.

I am planning on raising money from this activity for two charities - GAIN (Guillain-Barré & Associated Inflammatory Neuropathies) and ACT (Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust). My initial goal is £1300 for each of the charities, one pound (per charity) for each mile that I'll be cycling.

Where your money goes (ACT): From funding cutting edge equipment to putting smiles on the faces of poorly children, your generous support makes a big difference to Addenbrooke’s and the Rosie. It’s thanks to people like you that we can invest an additional £500,000 every month, saving lives, transforming our hospital and supporting pioneering research.