Richard Longthorp’s January Pressups4Parkinsons challenge is underway, with plenty of people from the pig sector and beyond already getting involved – and the door still open for more people to join in.
Having performed the extraordinary feat of 1,000 press-ups every day in January 2024, the pig industry veteran’s January 2025 Pressups4Parkinsons challenge is aiming to, collectively, achieve one million press-ups during the month, once again, to raise awareness and funds for sufferers of Parkinson’s Disease, and, in particular, for boxing clubs that support them.
“Parkinson’s is a degenerative condition of the brain. It is progressive – it gets worse over time. There is no cure. But… boxing seems to have the amazing ability to help manage the disease and hopefully even delay or slow down the dreaded progression,” the former NPA chair said.
Last year, he managed to raise £22,000, helping England Boxing develop a coaching course for those coaching People with Parkinson’s, with the delivery of nine courses to over 150 coaches. The funds also helped to run weekly Parkinson’s Boxing sessions at St Paul’s Boxing Academy and Goole Amateur Boxing Club.
You can find regular updates from those taking part in the challenge on Facebook. In a recent post, Richard said: “What an amazing start to this challenge with over 410,000 pressups committed. I have already picked up that quite a few of you intend increasing your target and I know that there are still a load of people to register.
“What we need now is everyone of us to encourage/cajole/badger friends, rellies, work colleagues, other boxers, other clubs, gyms etc etc and let’s make this thing really rock. BUT let’s also front up to the fact that this is only day 2 … and it WILL get tougher and it WILL get monotonous. But that is the challenge. Are we up for it? Course we ******** are!”
On day one, Richard, in his 70s and having lived with Parkinson’s for a number of years, performed 1,015 press-ups in 51 minutes 40 seconds.
Earlier, he said it was becoming increasingly apparent that, despite undoubted and genuine support and commitment, the actual task of registering was not featuring highly on people’s to do list during the festive period.
“All along I’ve wanted this to be a bit of fun and not become too rule-bound, formalised or rigid. I have therefore taken the decision that people can start the challenge anytime during January as long as they do it for a month,” he said.
- You can register to take part HERE
- Or scan the QR code below:
