TOM ISAACS

Tom Isaacs is an optimist.  He also has Parkinson’s disease. Tom believes that only optimism is incurable.  He is determined to help in any way he can to find a cure for Parkinson’s disease.

Tom Isaacs was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease at the age of 27.

A Chartered Surveyor, Tom took a sabbatical in 1999 and walked from John O’Groats to Lands End, raising over £40,000.  Three years later he undertook an extraordinary challenge to walk 4,500 miles around Britain’s coastline, and climb the highest peaks in England, Scotland and Wales.  This is a remarkable feat for anyone, but for someone with Parkinson’s disease, who is incapable of movement without medication, many thought this was nothing short of lunacy.

Tom’s year-long Coastin’ challenge started at the Millennium Bridge on World Parkinson’s Day, 11th April 2002, and finished exactly a year later, again at the Millennium Bridge (pictured above).  Two days later, Tom led a squad of 15 runners in the Flora London Marathon.

In total, Tom has raised £350,000 for research into Parkinson’s disease.

Post-Coastin’

On completing Coastin’, Tom co-founded The Cure Parkinson’s Trust, which fundraises under Movers & Shakers. The co-founders of the charity all have Parkinson’s and are Movers & Shakers in their own right and they are:  former Lord Mayor of London, Sir Richard Nichols, Air Vice Marshal Michael Dicken, former chairman of Next Plc, David Jones CBE and Tom. 

The Trust became a registered charity in 2005 and has since directed more than £1 million into research projects around the globe.  

In addition to being Managing Director of The Cure Parkinson’s Trust, Tom is also a Board Member of the European Parkinson’s Disease Association and regularly presents the patients' perspective at international conferences. Tom was runner up in the GMTV/Daily Mirror Fundraiser of the Year Award 2004, and he was named the UK’s Charity Personality of the Year in 2005.

He is an experienced, entertaining and excellent public speaker receiving regular standing ovations addressing high profile audiences at venues such as: The Mansion House, Lords Cricket Ground, Kensington Palace, Grosvenor House and the Oxford Playhouse.  He was the opening speaker at the World Congress on Parkinson's Disease in Amsterdam in 2007.  Tom also presented at the 2008 Galle Literary Festival in Sri Lanka where he was interviewed by Vikram Seth, poet and author of a ”A Suitable Boy.”

To celebrate his 40th birthday in April and the launch of Shake Well Before Use on World Parkinson's Day, Tom walked the breadth of the country, using the Leeds to Liverpool Canal as his route to raise awareness and funds for Parkinson's.  Setting off on 11th April Tom arrived in Liverpool the  European City of Culture for 2008 on 23rd April.

Biographical Information

Tom was born in 1968, in Chorleywood, the youngest of three children to parents Geoffrey and Jane Isaacs.  He attended York House School and Merchant Taylors' School, both near Rickmansworth, before training to become a Chartered Surveyor.  Tom is both a keen traveller and sportsman, and has a particular love of golf.  In 2005, Tom married his wife Lyndsey, an acupuncturist with her own practises in Rickmansworth and Harley Street.