Man diagnosed with Parkinson's will attempt the Three Peaks Challenge this summer for Parkinson's UK

Nathan Smith hopes the feat will show other young people with the condition that it is ‘not a death sentence.’ He aims to raise £1000 for Parkinson’s UK by climbing Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike, Snowdon within 24 hours. Nathan is excited to undertake the challenge with with brother Aaron Smith and friend Adam Vye on June 24 this summer.

Nathan, now 31, said: ‘It started off with a little tremor in the hand which, being a typical man, I just ignored and carried on with work.

‘Obviously it's quite rare to get it at my age, which is why it took so long. They had to rule everything out before they diagnosed me with that because the average age is about late sixties.

‘People know about Parkinson’s but I don’t think people understand that there are quite a lot of young people that suffer with it.

‘Because I’m reasonably healthy, my symptoms shouldn’t really get much worse until I’m quite a bit older. That's why I’m trying to get these challenges and awareness and money raised now while I’m still able to be out and about and active.’

Nathan first started noticing symptoms in 2019. He said that in a way the diagnosis came as a relief following two years of testing for other causes like nerve damage or a brain tumour. The idea to climb the UK’s highest mountains for charities came while he was scaling Snowden last year.

Nathan added: ‘Obviously it's a disease that's not curable but it’s not a death sentence – it has just made my life a bit more challenging.

‘When I was diagnosed it took a long while to process. You don’t know what’s going to happen in the future, and I sort of buried my head in the sand, which made my symptoms a little bit worse. Speaking to various people that have got it, they said you’ve just got to keep exercising and keep the body strong.’

Nick Cole was diagnosed with Parkinson’s at the age of 42 eight years ago. He decided to set up a monthly support group called ‘Parkinson’s At The Pub’ for other people of working age who suffer with the neurological condition. Members meet at The White Hart pub in Denmead.

Nick, who works as a nurse, expressed that Nathan’s mountain climb attempt is a ‘brilliant’ idea.

He said: ‘One of the biggest things is meeting people in a similar situation and feeling like you’re not on your own. The majority of people that come along really try to be as active as possible and do as much exercise as possible because that's one of the key things to help symptoms and hopefully slow their progression as well.

‘When people are diagnosed, it can have a massive negative impact, psychologically. Doing things like this that raise awareness and having something to kind of focus your attention on is really positive.’

People who would like to donate or find out more about Nathan’s fundraiser can visit justgiving.com/fundraising/adam-vye-nathan-smith.