An 80-year-old Olympian is aiming to show Parkinson’s is no barrier to enjoying life as he prepares to blast off on Virgin Galactic’s first space tourism flight next week.
Jon Goodwin will board VSS Unity before it launches from New Mexico, in the US, on Aug 10 – 18 years after buying his $250,000 (£194,600) ticket.
A former canoeist who represented Great Britain at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Mr Goodwin will be the first ever Olympian to become an astronaut when he sets off for a 90-minute trip into space.
Mr Goodwin, from Newcastle, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2014 and hopes his latest adventure will inspire others to do “abnormal things”.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast on Sunday, he said it feels “completely surreal” to finally be on the verge of the voyage he booked in 2005 and it will be the “icing on the cake” after a life of doing “exciting things”.
“I always believed it would happen, a lot of people didn’t,” Mr Goodwin said. “I had a lot of faith in the project and went out to the Mojave Desert, in California, a number of times, [to] watch the development.”
Asked if the cost of the ticket still seems worth it, he said: “I think it’s incredibly well-spent money. If, at the time, I was doing it with the Russians, it would have cost me millions of dollars.” Reflecting on his Parkinson’s diagnosis, he said: “I hope it [encourages] other people to do what I’m doing, that it doesn’t stop them from doing abnormal things. I’m really looking forward to it.”
Since his diagnosis, Mr Goodwin has climbed up Mount Kilimanjaro and cycled back down. Virgin Galactic said he will be the second person diagnosed with Parkinson’s to fly to space.
On signing up for the mission in 2005, he told BBC Breakfast: “When it came up, I was the fourth person to pick up the phone and sign up.
“It was just to have the opportunity to do something very few other people have done. More people have climbed Everest than have gone into space.
“I do hesitate on certain things... as there’s no toilet on this rocket ship, I have to go back to wearing nappies. I can’t remember the last time I had a nappy on.”
Asked how he will top going to space, he joked: “It might be that I need to go to the Moon or something.”
He added: “I’m very thankful to Virgin Galactic. When I got Parkinson’s I thought they were going to tell me I couldn’t do it, but they’ve never consulted me about it. They’ve just assumed I’m fit enough to do it.
“My wife’s always fully supportive of whatever I want to do. We have two boys and they’re both coming out to see me whizz into space.
Keisha Schahaff, 46, and her 18-year-old daughter, Anastasia Mayers, will join Mr Goodwin on the trip, becoming the first mother and daughter to go into space, after winning a coveted place in a prize draw.
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