This Monday, Gilles Houbart is embarking on an 800-kilometer course in an electric wheelchair to raise awareness about Charcot’s disease.
Starting signal! This Monday, Gilles Houbart, suffering from Charcot disease, left the city of Bellentre, in Savoie. His goal: to travel in an electric wheelchair the 788 kilometers that separate him from Paris, his arrival is scheduled for June 11. He will finish his run at the foot of the Ministry of Health. A long journey through France which he hopes will draw the attention of citizens and public authorities to Charcot’s disease, a disabling neurodegenerative pathology.
Unflinching determination
To complete his journey, the man hopes to travel fifty kilometers daily. At each stage, members of the association he founded will sign a petition asking for better accessibility for people with reduced mobility, and more significant financial aid.
In 2011, Gilles Houbart, a retired former military man, was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Charcot’s disease. Determined to do battle with the disease, he founded his association dedicated to supporting sick people: The long road for patients with ALS. A lover of the great outdoors, a few years later he created his paragliding and mountain sports school. He thus intends to rally Ebaudiaz (Savoie) and Touvet (Isère) in a paraglider with a disability to then make a crossing of Grenoble in rafting on the Isère. Interviewed by the Dauphiné Libéré, the man says he is “in good condition”, even after five years of illness.
Charcot’s disease is a pathology characterized by progressive degeneration of neurons in the cerebral cortex in particular. It gradually causes paralysis of the entire skeletal musculature of the limbs, trunk (respiratory muscles) and head.
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