Corrie MND story inspires 14,000km wheelchair push

A plotline from Billy Whiston's "guilty pleasure" TV show put the wheels in motion for his epic journey Down Under.
In April 2024, a storyline involving Coronation Street character Paul Foreman living with motor neurone disease (MND) inspired Billy to raise money for MND charities by pushing a wheelchair around Australia's coast.
The full journey is more than 8,948 miles (14,400km), which Billy started on 3 March and expects will take a year to complete.
The 25-year-old, from Glossop in Derbyshire, says he loves watching the long-running soap with his mum.

In 2024, Billy said he knew he wanted to take on a challenge but was not sure what it would be.
Then, one night with his family, while Coronation Street was on the television in one room and rugby league in the other, a conversation at half-time gave him the inspiration he needed.
"At the time, Peter Ash was playing Paul who had MND in the show. My mum started talking about how good he was at acting it," Billy said.
In the show, Paul was diagnosed with MND and the storyline concluded with his death from the disease in September 2024.
"It got us talking about MND that evening. And because we were watching the rugby too, I said, 'that's what Rob Burrow had' - and my dad brought up Doddie Weir," Billy said.
"We were having this conversation about how terrible it was, and it was in that moment that I had this plan.
"I said, 'what if I push a wheelchair around Australia for MND":[]}