This Guinness World Record holder hopes to inspire other autistic people as he aims to break his own half-marathon record at the Great North Run in September while dressed as John Cena.
Matthew Akpan was diagnosed as autistic in 2013, and has since broken three Guinness World Records, two of which he still holds and are for fastest marathon and half-marathon times while dressed as a wrestler.
The pandemic inspired Akpan to take on the challenge of achieving his own world record after losing two members of his family.
"We were all in COVID times when we all lost people," Akpan said. "In particular in my situation, I lost my grandma and my dad unfortunately passed away from kidney failure in January 2021.
"So as a tribute to him, and everyone who had lost someone, I wanted to do something to commemorate him and that started by me choosing the Guinness World Record as a professional wrestler.
"[Running gives me] that sense of openness and relief to be who I am. It makes me feel great and a sort of sense that I can tackle anything."
Akpan's story even drew attention from WWE legend John Cena, his wrestler of choice he dresses as for these records, who sent a tweet praising the record holder.
He described the recognition from Cena as "unbelievable" also self admittingly demonstrating to Akpan that he has a platform to do good and inspire others.
Receiving his autism diagnosis in 2013 reignited Akpan's self-belief after struggling throughout his time at university and suspecting that something was holding him back.
"When I did get diagnosed in 2013 with autism, having failed my degree in 2012, I decided to try and get back to university because I felt there was something holding me back," he said.
"When I did find out, it was a bit of a relief because I knew that I could potentially go back to uni, understand myself better and be able to grow.
"I think a big thing in life is to talk about it, and I think that's why a lot of people on the spectrum struggle to speak about being autistic because they see these challenges and the way people react.
"So either they are not given the privileges others are, or they end up leaving because the pressure is too much for them to cope with.
"A lot of people have said they are inspired by my efforts, which also links in with me being on the autism spectrum, through my achievements and through the condition that I do have, it inspires others that maybe don't have the courage to say look we can do anything we want."
Akpan will be running at the Great North Run in September where he hopes to break his record of one hour 24 minutes for the half-marathon, while again dressed as Cena.
