Alex Flynn: The 10 million metre man

Alex Flynn looked out over the desert landscape from the mound of volcanic rock, taking in the endless golden dunes of the Sahara desert rolling out into the dying sun. If the father-of-three hadn’t been gripped with fear, he may have allowed himself a moment to absorb the stunning panoramic beauty.

But Alex, a Parkinson’s disease sufferer, was well aware of the risks he faced while competing on the third day of the 2009 Marathon des Sables – one of the toughest endurance races in the world, which sees competitors run 251km in five days across the unforgiving Sahara.

The Englishman had spent the previous night in the first-aid tent on an intravenous drip of glucose and saline – incorrect treatment for a then-undiagnosed heart condition – and he now stood stranded in the middle of the world’s hottest desert, desperately ill and with only one-and-a-half litres of water left.

“I realised I was miles and miles away from anywhere,” the 42-year-old says during his visit to Dubai recently. “Fear came over me from the bottom of my belly and I felt sick. It takes a lot to control fear, but I knew if I panicked or gave up, I’d be dead.”

With a history for landing on his feet ever since surviving a near-drowning incident at the age of five, Alex was yet again to fall into protective hands. In what can only be termed sheer good fortune, the ailing adventurer, who had also only recently been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, was discovered by a Berber tribesman.

“It was a very strange experience,” Alex says. “The guy saved my life. He came out of nowhere and guided me back to the [race] course. By the time I got to checkpoint one, I was all over the place with a virus that was affecting my heart.”

Again placed on an IV after presenting symptoms of dehydration, it wasn’t until the next day when first-aiders realised Alex could be suffering from a heart attack and tested him, which revealed he had a liquid build-up that was squeezing his heart.

Alex, a lawyer by profession but with a track record of life-defying achievements, has been pushing his body to the limit for many years. But it was in 2008 when he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease – an incurable degenerative nervous disorder that impedes motor function, affecting breathing and movement – that he decided to test his capabilities even further.

“At the time I was fitter than a butcher’s dog,” he explains of his diagnosis. “I was riding 50 miles a week and running three-and-a-half marathons a week, plus the odd marathon at the weekend and the odd gym session thrown in. And I was holding down a full-time job.

“I got into work at 7.30am as usual,” he recounts of the first day he recognised something may be wrong, “and followed my regular regime. I got a cup of coffee, a bowl of porridge, and I sat down to work out my plan for the day.

“I picked up my cup of coffee and my little finger shook involuntarily. I thought, ‘I didn’t do that’, and I put my cup down and shook my hand out and laughed and thought it was just me overdoing things as per usual, but the shake kept coming back.”

Despite his depression, Alex continued to exercise – an action he believes ultimately saved him due to its power to balance low mood.

“I came to a very stark conclusion,” he explains. “I had a beautiful family, a young wife and three fantastic children and I questioned what kind of role model I’d be if I caved in and succumbed to the diagnosis. That’s when I stuck my feet in the ground and told myself I was going to fight it.”

“Rich suggested me doing 10 million metres, with only the actual combined races [not training] to be counted.”

“I agreed and since then I have run three quarters of the way round the planet training and racing, which is not bad for a guy with Parkinson’s!”

The 10-million-metre race, which has taken Alex across four continents, stopping by at St Peter’s Basilica in Rome, Big Ben in London and the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, among other global landmarks, has not been easy.

“It has had its highs and lows,” says Alex. “One of the plans was to traverse Europe, but it all came undone on the Grand Union Canal 233km Race when Rich went temporarily blind at the 112km point. The body was under so much stress that blood supply to his eyes got cut.

“When you’re running at dusk next to a canal, it’s not ideal. So he was holding on to my backpack for 8km until we made it to the next checkpoint. I carried on and I was so exhausted I started hallucinating and talking to things in the trees that weren’t there. I made it to 201km before my hip failed.”

Over the course of his 10-million-metre feat, Alex has run from London to Rome with a stress facture in his leg. He also traversed 5,240km in 35 days in the US – a route that included a 201km run across Death Valley, being chased by wild dogs and culminated in a run down Broadway that would have seen him swim out to the Statue of Liberty, but was stopped by authorities, who claimed that he would be arrested under a terrorism act.

Alex also completed The Europe 135, a 135-mile (217km) race across the Alps that he completed in 52 hours with only one-and-a-half hours’ sleep – after suffering a seizure.

When asked how he manages to push past a pain barrier that would make most people bed ridden, he replies, “I’m good with pain… but it’s about putting pain in a box in your head, closing the box and walking out of that room. I’m not one to say, ‘just because I’m in a bit of pain I’m going to stop’. I haven’t been called crazy,” he says, struggling to find the right words. “But I think you have to be slightly mad to take on some of the things that I have.”

The aim of Alex’s efforts is to find a cure for a disease that affects some 10 million people worldwide, and to keep focussing attention on clinical trials. Although research is ongoing, currently only medication to treat the symptoms of Parkinson’s exist – none reverse the effects of the disease.

“There are a lot of frightened, depressed and worried people out there who are all searching for hope,” he explains. “They want their individuality and their independence back. We don’t want to be a burden or looked upon as though we’re in need of care. We don’t want to lose the humanity that everyone takes for granted – that ability to walk, talk, sleep, swallow, write, be able to smile and make babies laugh.”

Quick to say his family have shown him incredible support, Alex also recognises that his course in life has not been an easy one for his wife, Aurelie, and his three children.

“Having Parkinson’s is very trying on your social and familial circle, but I’ve a huge amount of support from my family.

“Aurelie gives me a huge amount of support but [my initiatives] take me away from my family a lot. It’s like a businessman who travels a lot. It impacts your family and running around the planet has the same effect. I enjoy visiting places and travel, but I find it hard to be away from my family. I miss my boys, my wife and my home. It’s bearable but it’s tough.”

But Alex’s efforts have not always been met with praise. He admits that while he is often called an inspiration, some have criticised his actions.

“I was told off by one person who said I had given Parkinson’s sufferers a bad image in front of the [UK] government. She said I was making light of the disease because I’m doing so much. The interesting thing about Parkinson’s is that to me it’s like a designer disease – it affects different people in all sorts of ways.

“I do what I do to make sure people realise diagnosis doesn’t necessarily define you. You define you, and you stop yourself going forward. I do this to say we will find a cure, there will be better treatments that will give us back our independence.

“I’m going to keep putting myself through hell to keep Parkinson’s disease at the top of the agenda, and if that means putting my health on the line, then I will.”

Darren doesn’t have Parkinson’s, and the two will be monitored 24/7 for up to 80 days by a team from Oxford Brooke’s University.

“I am in a constant battle,” he says. “Every day I wake up and I’m fighting, but I’d like to think I am winning, I’d like to think I’ve managed to reduce my medication the more I exercise. I reduced it when I was crossing America to a quarter of my daily dose without any negative effects… and I’d like to prove that exercise can improve the symptoms.

“The research will be a world first because I don’t see many people with Parkinson’s disease queuing up to compete in the Pacific Row.”

Nor are there many who are running 10 million metres, but sometimes it takes just one to highlight the plight of many, and for Alex it boils down to something that we are all entitled to.

“I would like to see something that would allow me to live with the disease,” he says, “arrest its progression and give me back that ‘normality’ that most people enjoy.”