I was diagnosed with my condition Avascular Necrosis (AVN) in 2008, prior to that I had been very active, having 4 young children and included Indoor Rowing as part of that, when I was diagnosed with this after things with my legs epsecially were becoming noticeable, like having trouble putting socks on, etc, I was then told I had Osteoarthtitis too and then a Liver disease as well.........and I dont even drink!!

Once it had sunk in that my mobility is going to worsen over the coming years, I decided to see what options in sport there were, however down here in Devon, the options for disability sport are limited, so I decided to firstly attempt the Plymouth Half Marathon in 2010 on crutches, which was tough but I completed in just under 4 hours.

After a massive telling off for potentially making my health worse from my wife, mum, doctors etc, I opted not to try that again and went into wheelchair road racing, on New Years Day 2011, I decided to combine it into a charity campaign to help two small charities for rare and always conditions, namely the Batten Disease Family Association and the Huntington's Disease Association, I have friends and family who affected by both of these conditions, Batten Disease is especially cruel as it usually affects young children. For 2011 I set off to take part in 8 road races in my wheelchair over the year from 5K to Half Marathon distance, by December I had completed 14 races.....and being the South West, they all had some nasty hills to power up.

For 2012, I wanted to do something a little different and the idea hit me of doing 2012 arm powered miles over the course of the year, I had been away from Indoor Rowing for a couple of years for one reason or another, but I thought what better way to get back into it and to keep motivated on the rower, I had access to an old Model B rower, a bit of a boneshaker now but does the job for now, (Jim hasnt fixed it for me to have a Model E)... and New years Day set off on the first couple of miles, saw there was a facebook app which is a useful way of letting people know your progress and the ranking system is also a superb motivator, especially if your disabled, my first wheelchair race of 6 planned this year was the Great West 5 miler in Exmouth on February 5th, I had by then been erging every day for nearly 5 weeks and yes I did notice the difference going uphill, even after that short space of time. My health has made me a more driven and positive person and the urge to erg, compete, wheel, whatever has given me renewed vigour to succeed in all that I do,yes, i hate the pain of my condition, the frustrations sometimes in not being able to do certain things any more, the fact that I am knackered getting up stairs.......(but I can row quite happiliy for miles...strange how the human body works), but I dont want to just sit and feel sorry for myself as there is always someone else worse off.

When I was abled bodied still I always intended to enter the Cornish Indoor Rowing Competitions, despite the fact I am only 5ft 9, I fancied the challenge, but with a lot of things at the time I always ended up backing out, so when I saw it was being revived this year and I was allowed to enter as an Adaptive rower I sent off my application form on day 1, I felt a bit bad dragging my wife and two of my kids down to Newquay on Mothers day, but I think they understood, It was my first competiton and did not know what to expect at all, but it was pretty easy going, I was not made to feel "different" at all, my expectations in my perfomance were fairly high, I had been doing times over 2K of around 7m 35 secs, with the damper set a 9, as I row completely with my arms and shoulders, the left foot is on the footplate but only moves slightly and my right leg ( the worse one) rests on the floor, I was in a mixed race with a "hulk" of a heavyweight and a mix of other LW males and a 18 year old, I think I became a little nervous of the "experts" in the crowd and I became a little self conscious seeing all the others and that may have affected me a little, for some resaon in the final seconds before the race began I changed the damper down to 7.....I usually complete 15 strokes per 100 metres and quickly discovered as I counted and got to 15 strokes at 75 metres, that the same power I have when time trialling at home or at my local school gym was not there at all and frustratingly saw my boat fall further behind, in the end I finished in 8m 36 secs and felt pleased I had completed my first competiton but annoyed with myself at the mistakes I made as I know I can do alot lot better, that said I prefer longer distances 5 & 6K being my particular favourites which I do on a regualar basis.

I am considering doing a Half Marathon or full marathon on the erg, which I may try and approach my daughters school about as a means of fundraising for the school and my own campaign, I would also like to take part in other races if there any in the South West, as one thing I did enjoy about the Cornish IRC was......no hills and it was a nice and friendly event too, long may it continue!!!

My next wheelchair race is the Great West Run in Exeter on May 5th, and the Indoor Rower will again be an integral part of my training as well as neccesary to build up the miles on my challenge, just as a note my miles on the Indoor Rower are purely time trials and do not include warm ups etc at all. I have just turned 40 and while the bottom half of my body is falling to pieces , my top half is probably stronger and fitter than ever.

My fundraising has helped me meet some lovely people, people who make you feel quite humble and make you think twice about moaning about lifes trivialities and as I have personal links with both illnesses I try to help, I want to achieve as much as I can. I have a facebook page on http://www.facebook.com/groups/185095101587922/?ref=notif&notif_t=group_r2j which I try and update people regularly on my progress etc, my main fundraising page is http://www.justgiving.com/teams/matt2012