Spend an evening with adventurer and Parkinson’s campaigner Guy Deacon to mark the launch of his book Running on Empty and an upcoming Channel 4 documentary of the same name.

Guy was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2010, and in 2019 started planning and preparing for an ambitious solo overland trip from his home in Sherborne, Dorset to Cape Town, South Africa, plotting out a route that took him via the beautiful but at times extremely challenging west coast of Africa.

The talk will cover his remarkable expedition, highlighting the experiences of people who are living with Parkinson’s in the UK, throughout Africa, and beyond.

From the upcoming documentary about Guy’s expedition

As a natural-born adventurer, Guy developed an early appetite for travel journeying to the United States and Canada in his gap year and to Northern Kenya and the Sahara during university holidays. Joining The British Army in 1985, his career has taken him all over the world. As a young officer in The Queen’s Dragoon Guards, he travelled extensively throughout Africa.

He also served 18 months with the UN in The Congo for which he was awarded an OBE for his services in disarming and demobilising rebel forces. As Colonel of The Royal Armoured Corps (RAC), his lifelong achievements and in particular his strategic vision for the RAC within UK defence were recognised with a CBE.

Notwithstanding his diagnosis in 2010, he continued his Army career until 2019. Thereupon, Guy turned his attention to the planning and preparation for his ambitious solo overland trip to Cape Town.

Guy Deacon CBE

This was a route that Guy had wanted to do since his university days. But, forty years on, and now with advanced Parkinson’s, it was a journey of personal challenge and self-discovery.

Importantly, he wanted to use the journey as a platform to raise awareness and understanding of Parkinson’s disease in the UK, throughout Africa, and beyond, at the same time fundraising for both The Cure Parkinson’s Trust and Parkinson’s Africa.

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