Mike Tindall said his father is struggling with Parkinson’s disease and described the illness as brutal as he spoke at his annual charity golf tournament at The Belfry in Sutton Coldfield.
Speaking to HELLO! during the ISPS Handa Celebrity Golf Classic, Tindall said his father is “not doing great at the moment” and that the condition has affected him for more than 23 years, leaving him “a shell of what he once was.”
The former England rugby player was at the event, which supports Cure Parkinson’s and The Matt Hampson Foundation, to raise money for research and for people living with life-changing injury and illness. Tindall said the cause has personal force because he does not want to see another family go through the same decline, adding that it gives him motivation to back Cure Parkinson’s work on research and trials aimed at ending the disease.
Parkinson’s has shaped Tindall’s view of the charity day, and he put the focus firmly on the people the fundraising is meant to help. He said his father’s long battle with the disease has made him want to push for a cure, while also stressing that the support given through the tournament is not abstract. It is tied to the kind of daily losses families face when illness takes hold and does not let up.
That connection also runs through the other charity he is helping to support. Matt Hampson, 41, was paralysed from the neck down after a rugby accident at age 20, and Tindall said he remains impressed by the work Hampson does and the difference his foundation makes to people’s lives. Hampson has signed up for the New York Marathon after completing the London Marathon this year with the help of Sir Anthony McCoy, a challenge Tindall highlighted as an example of what determination and support can make possible.
The golf day came as Tindall and Zara Tindall moved towards their 15th wedding anniversary on 30 July, while Zara also turned 45 around the time of the event. Tindall joked that she was letting him play golf on her birthday and said she loves the golf day, a brief light moment in a conversation that quickly returned to the purpose of the fundraiser.
The family side was not far from his mind either. Tindall and Zara have three children, Mia, 12, Lena, 7, and Lucas, 5, and he said his main focus is that they enjoy sport and have fun with it, whatever level they choose. For him, that means learning teamwork, sharing wins and losses, and being part of something where there is laughter as well as competition.
That is the contrast at the heart of the day: a charity tournament wrapped in a birthday celebration, but anchored by a harder message about illness, disability and the need for treatment that changes lives. Tindall’s remarks made clear that the golf is the front door; the reason he keeps coming back is what lies behind it.
He said he has “a birthday and a golf day to get through first,” but the real task is bigger than one afternoon on the course. For Tindall, the aim is to keep raising money, keep the pressure on Parkinson’s research and keep the human cost of the disease impossible to ignore.
