MND patient urges people to join new year parkrun

Luke Hames-Brown was diagnosed with motor neurone disease in April 2023

A former GP with motor neurone disease (MND) is urging people to take part in a New Year's Day parkrun to raise money for treatment research.

Luke Hames-Brown, 35, from Wheatley, near Oxford, was diagnosed with the condition in April 2023.

He wants people to join him in a My Name'5 Doddie Foundation fundraising campaign that starts in the new year.

The charity's five-week campaign sees tens of thousands of people sign up for a jog, walk or cycle each year and has raised more than £5m for MND research since it launched in 2021.

Dr Hames-Brown said people could "help define the narrative by signing up and and doing something fun".

He told the BBC: "I have gone from running 23 or 24-minute parkruns, trying to push down towards 20 minutes, through to it eventually starting to take me one hour to walk with sticks.

"No matter who is running or walking, or how long it takes them, anybody can do this."

Dr Hames-Brown and his wife Kate completed an eight-day charity walk along the length of Hadrian's Wall in June

He said having a condition like MND would "inevitably dominate your life, I cannot pretend otherwise", adding: "But one thing I can do is define the narrative of how that happens.

"I can choose to use the time I have to make positive memories, do things with people I care about, do things for other people."

Scottish rugby great Doddie Weir died of MND in 2022

Dr Hames-Brown regularly fundraises for the My Name'5 Doddie Foundation, the charity set up by former Scotland and British and Irish Lions rugby legend Doddie Weir, who died from MND in 2022.

There is no cure for MND, which affects about 5,000 adults in the UK, and the average life expectancy after diagnosis is two to three years, according to the MND Association.