Surrey Man ‘humbled’ to be on Queen’s Birthday Honours List

This article first appeared on SurreyLive’s website on 13th October 2020. If you would like to see the original article, please click here.

This year, a total of 1,495 honours make up the 2020 list for their selfless and caring deeds. Paul was diagnosed in 2017 with motor neurone disease (MND) – a terminal illness.

Since his diagnosis, Paul has undertaken multiple successful charity fundraising initiatives, including climbing Mount Kilimanjaro and breaking a world record for the highest ever game of tennis (5,895m), raising over £150k for the Motor Neurone Disease Association.

Talking about receiving the award he said: “What an honour to have been given this prestigious award, I am truly humbled.”

While coming to terms with his diagnosis, Paul made two discoveries: firstly, that there was no simple way for him to record his legacy, set out his wishes for his family and plan for his death all in one place. Secondly, he found that people around him found it extremely difficult to talk about death and dying. This left him feeling frustrated, he said: “I am a firm believer that the best way to ensure a peaceful end of life is to prepare for it.

“I was determined to prepare properly, from a practical and emotional perspective, and to involve my family in the process, and it really surprised me that no obvious platform existed to help me do this.

“Dying is inevitable for all of us, but addressing it and talking about it remains one of the great taboos.

“All this means is that, too often, people’s end of life is far less well planned than it should be, and their memories, wishes, intentions and legacy can be lost forever.”