Diane Hastings, wife of rugby legend Gavin, to run London Marathon

Diane Hastings, wife of Scottish rugby legend Gavin Hastings, was diagnosed with early onset Parkinson's aged just 39 and is now set to run the marathon for a leading Parkinson's charity .
Diane Hastings is set to run the London MarathonDiane Hastings is set to run the London Marathon
Diane Hastings is set to run the London Marathon

She is set to run the London Marathon this April, along with her daughter Holly and friend Fiona, to raise money for The Cure Parkinson’s Trust.

Diane has lived with Parkinson’s for 15 years, receiving the diagnosis in 2003 when her children were still very young.

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“She has dealt courageously with the many ways the disease has affected her,” says Gavin Hastings in The Cure Parkinson’s Trust’s BBC Lifeline Appeal 2017,

“From the intense muscular pain and stiffness, to the disturbed sleep and loss of her sense of smell. It’s frustrating, exhausting and relentless.”

As her medication became less effective as the years went on, Diane’s symptoms worsened.

She decided in 2016 to undergo Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) surgery, a procedure which aims to treat the physical symptoms of Parkinson’s and involves electrodes delivering high frequency stimulation to targeted areas of the brain. Although the operation was a huge success, Diane still struggles with the physical and mental effects of Parkinson’s.

Diane, along with her friend Fiona Maran and daughter Holly Hastings together comprise team Shake, Rattle and Run.

They will be raising money for The Cure Parkinson’s Trust (CPT), a charity dedicated to funding research into new treatments which will slow, stop and reverse Parkinson’s. CPT funds innovative and promising projects all around the world, and believes a cure is out there to be found.

Fiona says she will “be with Diane every step of her journey.

Diane’s husband Gavin Hastings is also a long term supporter of CPT.

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He presented the BBC Lifeline Appeal in 2017, and has supported the charity through British and Irish Lions dinner events, and through a golf day at Muirfield in 2014.

The team’s fundraising page can be found here: https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/Team/shakerattleandrun