Dorset man with MND takes on London and Leeds marathons in two weeks

A man who is living with Motor Neurone Disease (MND) takes on the London and Leeds marathon in the next three weeks with the help of former colleagues and friends from the Royal Navy. Jon Over, a dad of two girls and a former navy engineer was diagnosed with MND in April 2025 at the age of 42. "I'll be honest, it's exhausting, MND is a day-by-day condition and some days I physically can't do it," he said via his eye-gaze machine, which uses his own voice previously recorded. Since his diagnosis, he started 'the biggest challenge of my life' and decided to run the Leeds and London marathon - over 52 miles in three weeks. "Leeds was a must because of the inspiration of Rob Burrow and Kevin Sinfield. But I've always dreamed of doing the London Marathon, so we decided to do both. He is being pushed around the course by a team of friends and former Royal Navy colleagues, including 45-year-old Alastair Crawford from Somerset. "When Alistair heard about my diagnosis, he came over to see me. I said to him, when I can't walk anymore, do you fancy pushing me around a marathon? In typical Al fashion, he turned up the next week with a spreadsheet of races, and that was that." Jon explained. Al