Parkinson's pioneer and charity founder Tom Isaacs from Croxley dies aged 49

Tom Isaacs was born on April 2, 1968, the third and youngest child in a close-knit family.

He was a chartered surveyor working as a director of a London property company when he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 1995 at the age of 26.

At the time, scientists and doctors accepted without question that Parkinson’s was an incurable condition. They strove to alleviate the symptoms but even on that front progress was woefully slow.

Isaacs simply refused to accept this conclusion, determined that one day he would be able to describe himself as someone who used to have Parkinson’s.

Sadly, that was not to be but his work in the intervening years between his diagnosis and his death on May 31 has brought this objective tantalisingly close for others with the condition.

Isaacs’ father was a successful London solicitor who shared Tom’s acute sense of humour and ready wit. He described his mother as the principal influence in his life. From an early age he learned to accept some of the restrictions of his health problems, being diagnosed as a coeliac while still a toddler.

He later described as a turning point a dream he had some two and a half years after he was diagnosed. In the dream he took over a workman’s pneumatic drill and found that with his shaking hands he could achieve more than others. He woke determined to use his Parkinson’s to achieve more in life than he could have done without it.

In April 2002 he set out to walk the coastline of Britain - a distance of 4,500 miles -which he resolved to complete in 365 days.

This would have been a challenge for a fit person but for a man who sometimes had difficulty in walking across a room it appeared absurd.

Yet he not only completed the walk precisely on schedule but also succeeded in raising around £350,000 for research into Parkinson’s disease.

He started and finished at the Millennium Bridge in London chosen because, like him, it was “wobbly”.

Two days later he ran the London Marathon. He told the story of the walk in his book Shake Well Before Use.

On his return he worked with three older men with Parkinson’s - Sir Richard Nichols, former Lord Mayor of London, Air Vice Marshal Michael Dicken, and Sir David Jones, chief executive of Next plc. With typical Isaacs humour they called themselves the Movers and Shakers.

With the assistance of Helen Matthews, a close friend of Isaacs’, they set up the Cure Parkinson’s Trust, which had an office in Rickmansworth.

The trust has now been going for more than 10 years and is recognised as a key player in the world of Parkinson’s research, setting up and funding linked clinical trials on an international basis.

Isaacs’ ability to communicate with people from every background was exceptional - speaking recently in Rome about stem cells that led to an audience with the Pope. He worked closely with many international research organisations including the Van Andel Research Institute and the Michael J. Fox Foundation.

He was impressive on the radio, working with Clare Balding on a Radio 4 documentary, which was nominated for a Sony Award.

He was named Charity Personality of the Year in 2004 and was an Olympic torchbearer in 2012.

A brilliant and inspirational speaker, his self-deprecating humour put his audience at ease despite his flailing arms caused by dyskinesia and loss of balance.

Above all he inspired people with Parkinson’s, giving them hope that a cure will be found and a belief that their voice was being heard.

He is survived by his wife Lyndsey and his mother, brother and sister.