Wheelchair user's coast-to-coast challenge kicks off

Ben Parker has started his challenge pushing himself in his wheelchair from Suffolk to Cornwall

A wheelchair user with multiple sclerosis (MS) said he never believed he would be able to push himself across the country as he begun a coast-to-coast challenge.

Ben Parker, 49, from Saffron Walden, Essex, was diagnosed with MS in 2009 and started using a wheelchair in 2023 when he struggled to use his legs.

He wanted to "do some good" for both himself and charity, and came up with the idea to travel in his wheelchair from Ness Point in Lowestoft, Suffolk, to Land's End in Cornwall.

He began his journey on Sunday first travelling to Diss, Norfolk, supported by his partner Louise Hayes travelling in a car behind him.

Mr Parker said people had been very supportive since he started his challenge on Sunday

Mr Parker said while he had been diagnosed in 2009, he experienced symptoms in the mid-1990s.

He felt his body was "slowly shutting down" and "things were getting harder to do".

MS is a condition where the immune system attacks cells in the brain and spinal cord, affecting how people move, think and feel.

While it cannot be cured, treatments can manage it.

Mr Parker's partner Louise Hayes is supporting him and travelling behind in a car

"Because it's neurological, the messages aren't getting from my brain to where they need to get to," Mr Parker explained.

"It affects my ability to see sometimes, my balance, I've got numbness in my hands and feet constantly, I've got pains shooting through my body."

While working as a school teacher he said he could hearing people describing him as "drunk" around the corridors as he struggled to move.

He then struggled to accept he needed a wheelchair, but said "it has opened up my life".

The support car details Mr Parker's challenge so other drivers are aware of him

Mr Parker said he had "quite flippantly" decided to embark on the challenge and raise money for charities Andy's Man Club and No Child Without.

"Everybody goes from top to bottom or bottom to top, and I thought I'll go from east to west," he said of his challenge.

"I never in my wildest imagination thought I was going to be thinking about crossing the country."

On Monday, Mr Parker travelled from Diss to Newmarket and expected to complete the challenge on 8 August.