Two years ago, David Greaves ran along the Hadrian’s Wall path from Carlisle to Newcastle in just one day. And the year before that, he completed the “ultra triathlon” Iron Man Challenge in Wales with relative ease.
“He has done several marathons too – he was incredibly fit,” said his father, Andrew Greaves, a member of Hexham Quakers.
But the devastating disease he was diagnosed with little more than a year ago is taking its toll and David (31) is now wheelchair bound and dependent on a ventilator for breathing.
“He needs 24-hour care,” said Andrew. “He recently had three weeks in the RVI (Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary) after contracting pneumonia – the fact he is still here is very much down to the tremendous medical team.
“Everyone understands his life is coming to a close tragically early, but he has been so brave and his wife, Philippa, has given him wonderful support.”
The Greaves family is already dealing with another tragedy in that David’s cousin, Harry Greaves, was the lone trekker who was found dead at the bottom of a crevice in the Peruvian Andes in April after a two-week search for him.
Determined to do something positive in the face of adversity, the team running the Great North Run are raising money for research designed to find a cure for MND.
Besides Andrew, David’s mother, Sarah, and older brother, Peter, are taking part, along with Philippa, members of her family and some of the couple’s closest friends.
Calling themselves 2Fingers2MND , they have raised around £22,000 in sponsorship so far via the Just Giving website and they would be delighted to receive more pledges of support.
David and and Philippa themselves raised another £12,000 for the cause when they did a sponsored climb up Africa’s Mt Kilimanjaro just weeks after he’d been diagnosed.
The realisation that time was of the essence also persuaded the couple, who have been together for three years, to cement their plans and get married. They did so last September.
Andrew said: “Fifty per cent of people diagnosed with MND die within two years.
“David had gone to the doctor’s displaying some strange symptoms and a couple of months before his diagnosis, Sarah and I went to see The Theory of Everything , about Stephen Hawking, at the cinema.
“Sarah remembers thinking ‘Oh no, don’t let it be that’.”
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