From the RAC Alumni Committee

Many members of the Alumni will remember Colonel Guy Deacon who retired from the army recently and who’s last appointment was as Colonel Royal Armoured Corps, here in Bovington. During his four year tenure, his focus and that of the entire headquarters, was on bringing the RAC together to maximise the strengths of the individual regiments that make up the RAC under a project called “RAC First”. The RAC Alumni was one of the many measures that have been pursued as part of that project.

What some of you will know is that Colonel Guy was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2010 and, given that he was consistently fighting this condition, the impact he had on the Corps is therefore all the more remarkable. He never drew attention to his circumstances nor expected any leeway, but he will be the first to admit that he could not have done what he did at any level without the tremendous support of HQ RAC staff and the regiments of the RAC.

On retirement Col Guy was never going to let Parkinson's stop him living as active and full a life as possible, including fulfilling his main ambition: to travel overland from England through Africa to South Africa, a trip he had been dreaming of and planning since travelling over land to Kenya with soldiers from the QDG in 1987. 

Col Guy made it as far as Sierra Leone before Covid restrictions forced him to abandon his travels and come home.  He is determined to continue the journey but now he is focusing on using the journey to explain what it is like to have Parkinson's from a personal perspective and to shine a light on the realities of Parkinson’s disease in Africa where people don’t get the help that we have in Europe and are often stigmatised because there is no known reason why people get it and no known cure. Indeed, in some parts of Africa people with Parkinson’s are assumed to be cursed and are ostracised by their own communities. Colonel Guy will be meeting many of those people as he makes his way through the next fourteen countries, and at the same time compiling video footage from interviews and his own travelogue to make a film on his return.

He has developed many contacts to help him through some of the more difficult countries where he will  face driving on seemingly impossible roads, very complicated border crossings, genuine security risks in some countries, as well as his own personal trials as he makes his way south. The journey would be rather daunting for anybody but so much more so for him, especially as he will be doing much of the travelling by himself. When he finishes, his aim will be to have a film worthy of being shown by the best broadcasters and he is preparing a submission to the BBC before he departs next month.

His aim is very clear now: to make as many people aware of the realities of Parkinson’s as possible because there is so much that people don’t understand. Everybody knows that Parkinson’s results in debilitating physical characteristics but there are few people who know about the other consequences of Parkinson's and just what it is like to live with it. He will be brutal in describing how he feels on a daily basis when challenged by the everyday realities of travelling through Africa. And he will meet people on his way whose condition and circumstances are far worse than his and who need just as much help but don’t get it. Whilst he is ultimately raising awareness of the need to find a cure and the work of the ‘Cure Parkinson's Trust’(Cure Parkinson's - Charity - Formerly The Cure Parkinson's Trust (cureparkinsons.org.uk), and ‘Parkinson’s Africa’ (Home | Parkinson's Africa (parkinsonsafrica.com), he is not asking for money for them now.

If however there are readers who wish to donate, they can either donate to ‘Cure Parkinson's Trust’ directly through his just giving page or they can help him cover the cost of filming by contributing to his crowdfunding page (links to both of these are shown below).

What he really wants is as many followers as possible on his journey via “Polar steps”, a site which records his daily activity and immediate thoughts as well photographs and film of what he has been doing on a daily basis. Knowing that people are following him spurs him on and gives him great support on what is otherwise a very daunting project.  If you do nothing else to help him, please forward the links below to those who are not members of the RAC Alumni who may be interested.

To help make the film please donate here: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/freetown-to-cape-town-with-parkinson-s-disease--2

To help find a cure, donations can be made here: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/guy-deacons-journey

And to follow him as he drives south, please log on here: https://www.polarsteps.com/GuyDeacon/2732274-sierra-leone-and-beyond

CNN (One World with Zain Asher) interviewed Guy Deacon regarding his journey from Freetown to Cape Town to raise awareness for Parkinson's Disease.