Matt walks tall after his life-changing op

It's National Walking Month, and while most of us are happy to go on a gentle stroll, one Horsham resident takes it to the extreme '¦ despite having had a total hip replacement.

Matthew Isherwood has recently returned from walking the whole length of the Great Smoky mountain range, part of the Appalachian Trail in the USA - an 80-mile route, climbing up and down repeatedly to around 6,600ft, carrying a 26kg pack with kit and supplies on his back. Not forgetting the ice picks and crampons to negotiate the treacherous conditions.

He and two old school friends from Horsham had already walked the southern half of the Trail last year, sleeping in hammocks each night of a five-day mountainous trek.

“If you enjoy walking, then the Appalachian Trail is one of those lifetime goals,” says the 41-year-old father of two, “and The Great Smoky Mountain Range is probably the most challenging section.”

But before he had his hip operation, it was something he could only have dreamed of.

When he was 17, Matthew was run over by a coach, an accident which crushed his legs and dislocated his left hip. He was in hospital on traction for six weeks, crutches for six months and a walking stick for more than two years.

An active young man, he was determined to get his fitness levels back, so swam and cycled regularly. By his mid-20s, he was enjoying his love of walking again, playing sport and tackling treks across The Downs, in The Brecon Beacons and Snowdonia.

But the early trauma took its toll and he began to suffer with arthritis. His job as a Chartered Surveyor for Horsham-based firm, Acorn Surveyors, where he is a founding partner, means he is on his feet most of the day, up and down ladders and crawling into loft spaces to do inspections. While he says the pain didn’t stop him doing his job, he suffered afterwards.

As the pain became progressively worse, he was struggling with lack of sleep.

In 2011 he was told the hip joint had significantly deteriorated and that he needed a total hip replacement.

“I was only 35 so I put it off for as long as possible and started to take prescribed painkillers. It didn’t stop me doing things, but I really suffered afterwards, and the painkillers just didn’t touch the pain. ‘It took me 18 months to get my head around having a hip operation, but by then I realised I needed to do something positive.”