MND sufferer Jason Liversidge 'breaks wheelchair world record'

Jason Liversidge, who is now 95 per cent paralysed with motor neurone disease, broke the current record of 55mph, while testing the wheelchair at Elvington airfield on Tuesday.

He did a number of runs, improving on his time until he hit 59.064mph.

Officials were checking to see if the results could be submitted to Guinness World Records as they had happened during a test session rather than a record attempt.

Liz said her "adrenaline junkie" husband, from Rise, in East Yorkshire, was only meant to be trying the wheelchair out.

She said: "Jason has always pushed things to the extreme of what is possible.

"He's paralysed from the neck down and has the slightest bit of movement in the left hand which enables him to drive the machine.

"I am absolutely over the moon - my heart was racing. We were following in a van - last time we had trouble keeping up.

"It is fantastic for anybody to achieve something like this, but for a person like Jason to do it is absolutely amazing.

"It shows that being terminally ill and paralysed doesn't stop you from achieving your dreams."

Jason had originally planned to attempt a wheelchair world speed record in 2018.

After many technical issues arose this was abandoned and since then a completely new electric wheelchair has been built by Heald Ltd, of Hornsea.

It is the most daring of a series of challenges Jason has taken since he was diagnosed in 2013, including scaling Mount Snowdon and abseiling into a 110-ft chasm in the Yorkshire Dales.

Since then his health has deteriorated, and he is now fed through a tube into his stomach, and his speech has "just about totally gone," said Liz.

Their daughters Lilly, 8, and Poppy, 7, missed their dad's record-breaking ride but will get another chance to see him on September 25.