Adventurer’s Inverness homecoming for tail of inspirational 630-mile odyssey

With life blown off course by a shattering diagnosis, John MacPhee naturally felt a yearning to get everything back on the straight and narrow. The married dad of four, before too long, would take that impulse quite literally. Ahead of John lay the ‘Long Straight Walk: A Parkinson’s Story’ - and with it, the adventure of a lifetime. In 2014, walking boots, boats and planes would propel the Inverness born and raised VisitScotland tourism manager on an unlikely 630-mile odyssey.

Plenty before him had ventured from Land’s End to John O’Groats. No-one, prior to 2014, had done it in a straight line, although young Everest mountaineer and kayaker Tori James became the first to achieve it that very year. Some 12 years on, this Sunday (May 31), John’s mighty journey will be recounted at an official book launch and Q&A in the Kingsmills Suite of the Sarens PSG Stadium. There are still some tickets left.

The self-written tale charts the highs and lows of the inspirational feat, but also splits the timeline to explore the author’s post-walk battles with progressive Parkinson’s. Honest and unvarnished, it makes for an informative, entertaining read full of laughter and tears. There are thrills and spills including an unfortunate brush with Alex Salmond and his Scottish referendum campaign team that blew the journey off course to Carlisle. Most enjoyably, it recounts the many characters met along the way. “It will be an absolute pleasure to come home to Inverness to launch the book,” said John, who attended St Mary’s Primary, Beauly, St Joseph’s in Inverness and then the High School, before working for various local employers including MacRae and Dick.

Some 20 years ago, he moved south to Dunkeld and now lives in Longforgan, between Perth and Dundee. Sorrow and a great sense of personal loss greeted the bombshell news in 2012 that, at 46, he was suffering from debilitating Parkinson’s. It was a devastating blow to an active man who had played rugby for Highland and cricket for Ross County and Highland. Only later in hindsight did John later realise it was Parkinson’s that messed with his hop, skip and jump run-up as a cricket bowler, 10 years before diagnosis. “I was in my mid-forties, fit and healthy, and had barely had a day off work.

Then, boom, I had Parkinson's,” John, now 60, said. “Being fit and healthy didn't protect me, although I firmly believe it has helped slow down its progression. “When it first happened, it really was such a shock. You go through stages of grief and anger, but then comes acceptance. I got through those stages pretty quickly. “There’s a realisation that you can only control what you can control.” There is no ’right’ way to deal with a Parkinson’s diagnosis, no wrong response. For some, that grieving process can understandably take years.

John has faced it all with courage, dignity and good humour. Self-effacingly, he tries to suggest he was “too stupid” to let the diagnosis overwhelm him and quickly resolved to do something positive in defiance of it, refusing to let the brutal illness define him. During a Fort William to Inverness walking and cycling challenge, descending the seemingly endless long, straight stretch of the Great Glen Way towards Craig Phadrig, an epiphany struck. Had anyone ever attempted Land’s End to John O’Groats in a straight line?

Was it even possible? “There's an old comedy film I'd watched, starring the actor Joss Ackland as a retired fellow who does the end to end walk. In real life, the actor’s wife died of motor neurone disease and he was totally lost. That wee strange little film just stuck in my head. “I was coming down the big, long stretch to Craig Phadrig and it all came together in my mind.” The seed was sown, and he succeeded, returning with a wonderful tale to tell. The hardest part of diagnosis had been telling the family, his wife Yvonne and the two girls and two boys - Liam, Connor, Christy and Laurie.

Yvonne, he says, has been a true wonder, immense in her selfless support as carer. “I’m lucky, she’s risen to it completely,” John said. “When I mentioned the idea for the walk, I hoped she was going to say ‘no, absolutely not’. Unfortunately, she was right behind me! “I’d always wanted to do LEJoG and Parkinson's gave me the impetus. I was sticking two fingers up at the disease while raising awareness and a bit of cash to fight it.” All the joys, mishaps and characters he met along the way were jotted down in note form, only to be filed away for a rainy day. As any writer without a deadline will tell you, it is easy to sit on a story.

What finally motivated John to dust them off and get writing in 2024 was a twist in his medical journey. “I was going in for an operation on my head, something called deep brain stimulation (DBS),” he recalled. “The truth is I wanted to get it written down in case the worst happened.” Without giving too much away, the book chronicles John’s ingenuity in sticking as closely to the notional straight line as humanly possible, while securing goodwill and alternative transport over those inconvenient watery bits - the Bristol Channel, the Irish Sea via the Isle of Man, and the Moray Firth. The straight line stretches around 600 miles, with John veering off it by only 30 miles, to avoid impassable land. Boats and plane trips were begged for, while around 500 miles on foot on a trip that took him from September 6 and October 3, 2014. The only bit of England crossed by land was Cornwall, before Wales and “the only bloody hill on Anglesey”, the Isle of Man, Kirkcudbright, Hamilton services, Kirkintilloch, Stirling, Aberfeldy, Blair Atholl, Kingussie, Findhorn, Dornoch, Helmsdale and John O’Groats.

The crossing to Wales set the tone. “I contacted the manager at an airport and just asked if anybody would be willing to fly me across the Bristol Channel. To my amazement, he said ‘yes’. “I got into the plane with an old fella, about 80, who told me he’d actually learned to fly in a gypsy moth. Highland pilot Hugh Urquhart, whose late golfing dad Fraser we featured in a tribute piece last year, flew him across the Moray Firth, while there were a couple of boat rides for good measure.

But the most memorable individual encountered was the fellow Parkinson’s sufferer who transformed the trip from a personal adventure into a mission to help and inspire others. “On the Isle of Man, I met a man called Rob Farrar. He was a couple of stages ahead of me with Parkinson's. “He walked with me for six miles. That was when I realised that the journey wasn't about me, and it wasn't about Parkinson's, it was about the people that were following you and supporting you. “Before it was a case of ‘I'm doing the walk, it's me’ - kind of ego driven. “After meeting Rob, I knew there was no way I wouldn't walk right to the end. “It absolutely changed my attitude towards the walk, towards myself, and towards Parkinson’s.” It’s a terrific read and, without a doubt, the Long Straight Walk has the power to change attitudes and inspire others. It was a long time coming, but well worth the wait.

Do you want to respond to this article? If so, click here to submit your thoughts and they may be published in print.