Wheelchair user to take on coast-to-coast challenge

Ben Parker was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2009

A wheelchair user with multiple sclerosis who is preparing to embark on a journey from one side of the country to the other says his disability has given him "a new lease of life".

Ben Parker, 48, from Saffron Walden, Essex, was diagnosed in 2009 while working as a bus driver, and he started using a wheelchair in 2023.

The condition, which involves the immune system attacking cells in the brain and the spinal cord, affects how people move, think and feel.

Mr Parker, who had struggled with his mobility for a few years, said: "After having accepted that my legs were at a point that a wheelchair was needed for me to get around the world, I was given a new lease of life.

"I have never felt so free and so very alive, even though my body is still slowly failing me."

Mr Parker said he had the idea of embarking on the challenge after taking part in a few park runs over the summer.

He is due to start his journey on 27 July in Lowestoft, Suffolk, ending it at Land's End, Cornwall.

He will be accompanied by friends on bikes during the journey, which will take two weeks to complete.

Ben Parker went back to school 10 years ago to become a teacher

"With the park run, I just wanted to see if I've got something about me because, being in a wheelchair, it is so easy to think 'I'm rubbish, I'm no good anymore'."

Mr Parker said he had decided to take on the challenge to prove to himself that he still "has something about" him while raising money for charity.

He is supporting Andy's Man Club, a suicide prevention charity, and Harlow-based charity No Child Without.