BETTER FOR LONGER #2

When Jim met Matt ‘The Eagle’ (not Eddie)

Well, it’s fair to say Matt isn’t your average guy and apart from doing things such as flying on the wing of a biplane for fun, he was also diagnosed with Parkinson’s age 7.

Last year I got the opportunity to interview Matt. It all started when I met Matt on the train on my way home after work. When Matt going on, at first I thought he had MS because of the way he was walking. I was with my therapy dog Alice and Matt sat next to us. I introduce Alice as the therapy dog who needed therapy and we got chatting about dogs and life; one thing led to another and we got chatting about my Dad who also has Parkinson’s himself. As the train came to my stop and I arranged to do an interview with Matt.

Turns out, Matt is a bit of a super star in the world of Parkinson’s and has a pretty incredible story; let’s just say Matt hasn’t let Parkinson’s stop him living life to the max.

Matt has also set up an inspirational project called Parky Life which explores the brighter side of Parkinson’s. In Matts words, Parky Life gathers together the brightest slices of positivity from across the Parkyverse and is chock-full of hacks, perks, inspiring people and funny stories.

Behind his upbeat personality, Matt is honest about his struggle with depression, self harm and anxiety as he has navigated life with Parkinson’s. The biggest thing I learnt from Matt, is his condition is not an embarrassing thing or a life sentence. It also does not need to define you, it is simply a challenge that we need to adapt to and embrace as part of who we are. To find out more, you can listen to the podcast interview I did with Matt.

You can also follow Matt on Twitter or Facebook

Thanks for reading :-)