I was the most surprised of all that I was given a Knighthood in The King’s 2024 New Year’s Honours List.
I will still be known to most people as Dicky, but officially this makes me Sir Richard Evans KCMG with the added honour of my existing Kenya decoration, OGW, the Order of the Grand Warrior.
Much more appropriately, my wife of nearly 50 years is now Lady Evans, and that could not be a better description of her unwavering grace and kindness.
For general info see Wikipedia and for more detail please click on the buttons below.
I am a Cornishman by birth who moved to Kenya as a young man and remained there.
I’ve played sport all my life from county schools level football, athletics and cricket, to international rugby. Recently, a historian and a researcher put together a Rugby CV for my time in Africa, with a terrific set of press clippings, not sure where they found them!!
I’ve had a great life so far and then…
My world imploded when I received a life sentence…
In 2011, aged 64, I was diagnosed with Parkinson.
It felt like the death of my life as I knew it… I was a successful businessman, a faithful husband and father, a proud sportsman. Parkinsons… its a nice name for a hideous and incurable disease shared by around ten million people worldwide.
Maybe by you …
I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.
It scared me, it scared my family, and not only the reality of the Parkinsons but the increased risk of dementia.
Yet after a decade of decline, and in the teeth of Covid-19, I reversed my future and set off on my path to live to be 100.
Come and join me!!!
We are not all the same, but we can share the same ambition and learn from each others victories and difficulties.
Do Something Positive
DOING SOMETHING POSITIVE makes all the difference to body, mind and spirit – and that makes a longer happier life more likely.
On my TOP 10 page you will find my favourite activities, useful products, research, services and some bits of nonsense that cheer me up. These change all the time, all have helped keep me interested and moving forwards. I hope you enjoy them.
One of these includes big game fishing. When I reached 70 years old (six years into the dreaded P) I caught a very nice Blue Marlin, about 300lbs, tagged and released. I then set myself a goal to catch a Marlin every year until I reached 80.
I managed this every year so far, in my 75th year I caught three, and in my 77th year to date, I have caught two more!! You can see this on video below.
Images Past and Present
For those who know me of old, there are some crackers in here from the early Homegrown days. Sadly photographic records of playing rugby in Africa are almost non existent, and photos of family I keep outside this public forum. However, I hope you enjoy some of these!
I was flattered to be interviewed by the long-read publication The Rugby Journal in early 2024, and they produced a cracking illustration to headline the article.
