Tough Mudder challenge is no obstacle for miracle man Alex
Farmer completes challenge after overcoming paralysis with local training camp
A year ago Alex Hardwick couldn’t run a hundred yards after being left partially paralysed by a condition he contracted 10 years ago.
But last week he completed the gruelling Tough Mudder challenge which sees participants run 12 miles and complete a series of obstacles including mud baths, ice baths, electric shocks and crawling through sewers.
Alex, 39, a farmer from Snainton for A W Hardwick and Sons, said there were times he thought he wouldn’t ever get his life back on track after a bout of food poisoning left him with a rare condition called GuillainBarre.
It is a rare condition which attacks the nervous system and left him with no calf muscle in his left leg, no muscle in the shin of his right leg and foot drop.
Although the condition is quite shortlived, the recovery is long and slow.
He said: “There is a lot of fatigue and loss of movement and for two years I just struggled with walking.
“For years I couldn’t go out and socialise because I was tired. I used to race motorbikes and couldn’t do that and it is difficult not being able to do the things you want to when you are 27 and 28.”
But last year, Alex who lives at Malton Cote Farm. bumped into old school pal Alex Willgrass who runs the HIT training camps in Scarborough with local boxer Danny Price.
He said: “Alex said come to the sessions we will get you going and I was just ‘yeah yeah’ but they have given me the confidence to push and do things like Tough Mudder.
“I did every single obstacle and ran the whole way – I was quite emotional when I got over the line.
“On the start line I was quite terrified and thinking what have I let myself in for.
“I used to be quite negative and think I can’t do this and I can’t do that but rather than just existing, when you do an event like that it just makes you feel so alive and I was absolutely buzzing afterwards.”
Alex added that his parents and family, including partner Gemma and three year-old son Bertie, had played a massive part in his recovery.