This week we're kicking off our summer mini-series, profiling top Parkies who are leading extraordinary lives despite – or because of – the condition. First up: Guy Deacon. Guy has driven from Morocco to South Africa in a VW Camper Van since his diagnosis, which makes him the perfect person to pontificate on how to take big, adventurous risks when living with this illness.
By Podot
Each week Rory Cellan-Jones guides us between the laughs and moans in the pub. To read Rory's summary of this week's episode click here.
Guest Biography
Colonel Guy Deacon CBE
Guy Deacon CBE is an ambassador for The Cure Parkinson’s Trust and Parkinson’s Africa. His recent overland trip from the UK to Cape Town, via the west coast of Africa, and his relentless efforts to raise awareness of Parkinson’s in Africa, are the subject of a forthcoming documentary and book.
As a natural-born adventurer, Guy developed an early appetite for travel journeying to the United States and Canada in his gap year and to Northern Kenya and the Sahara during university holidays. Joining The British Army in 1985, his career has taken him all over the world. As a young officer in The Queen’s Dragoon Guards, he travelled extensively throughout Africa. He also served 18 months with the UN in The Congo for which he was awarded an OBE for his services in disarming and demobilising rebel forces. As Colonel of The Royal Armoured Corps (RAC), his lifelong achievements and in particular his strategic vision for the RAC within UK defence were recognised with a CBE.
Guy was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2010. However, he continued his Army career until 2019. Whereupon, Guy turned his attention to the planning and preparation for an ambitious solo overland trip from his home in Dorset to Cape Town in South Africa, plotting out a route that took him via the beautiful but at times extremely challenging west coast of Africa.
This was a route that Guy had wanted to do since his university days. But, forty years on, and now with advanced Parkinson’s, it was a journey of personal challenge and self-discovery. Importantly, he wanted to use the journey as a platform to raise awareness and understanding of Parkinson’s disease in the UK, throughout Africa, and beyond, at the same time fundraising for both The Cure Parkinson’s Trust and Parkinson’s Africa.
Guy set off on his African adventure in November 2019 however he was forced to break the journey and return home in March 2020 due to the Covid pandemic ‘lockdown’ and the global travel restrictions that followed. Resuming his travels in April 2022, Guy finally arrived in Cape Town in December – an African odyssey involving 12 months of overland travel, with a route that took him through 25 countries, covering a total distance of over 18,000 miles.
Guy was educated at Sherborne School, Dorset and graduated from Durham University with a BA Hons in Anthropology. He is married with two children and is based in West Dorset.
Guy continues to focus on his mission to raise awareness of Parkinson’s disease. He is currently working alongside New Fruit Productions and a publisher for the production of a commissioned documentary and book.
Taken from www.guydeacon.co.uk
Read more about Guy, his journey and his work for charity here.
And watch his brutally frank take on Parkinson’s here.
To buy a copy of Guy's book click here.
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