Thank you for your interest in this story
To continue reading this article, subscribe to the Stray Ferret for as little as £1 a week
Already a subscriber? Log in here.
03
Oct
'Harrogate will always be home': Matt Pilmoor on Alzheimer's, MAFS and Gladiators
Fans of reality TV might recognise Matt Pilmoor from the programme Married at First Sight.
But these days, Mr Pilmoor is focusing more on using his famous face for a good cause.
The Harrogate local is raising money for Alzheimer’s Research UK, after his mum was diagnosed with the disease.
He took on the challenge to swim the 10.5 miles across Lake Windermere using only breaststroke, but half way across had an injury and was advised to stop.
Still determined, he plans to repeat the challenge next summer – and is going to train for eight months to ensure he finishes next time.
Mr Pilmoor said:
Mum got diagnosed about two years ago now, so it's about using my platform for the right things. So I want to raise as much awareness as possible, which I think we've done a good job of doing.
I was really surprised to hear about the lack of support that there is for people with Alzheimer's. I just don't think people fully understand it all, either. Until it happens to someone in your family, that's when you sort of start learning about it.
It's been in our family since my grandma, she died of dementia, and then mum's been diagnosed with Alzheimer's, so I think I learned at quite a young age what it was all about.
Mr Pilmoor with his mum.
After seeing how little help there was available for people suffering from Alzheimer’s, Mr Pilmoor decided to take on a challenge to raise money as well as awareness, including encouraging people to sign a petition that urges the government to ensure more treatments are available through the NHS.
He was still ‘down’ about not completing his swim when we met.
He said:
I'm going to go back and try next year. I went into the swim with a torn shoulder, knee issues and a groin issue. And then whilst I was doing the swim, I thought it was going to be the shoulder that gave way, but actually I pulled both my quads.
I maybe needed longer [to train]. It was a bit of a crazy year building up to it. I got asked to go for BBC Gladiators, so I had an audition for that which put the swim on hold. And when I didn't get the job I was like, right, I'm doing the swim because the swim was always the initial plan this year.
He swam about five miles before injuring himself.
Mr Pilmoor was born and bred in Harrogate, and currently splits his time between here and Nottingham, where he lives with his girlfriend, fellow MAFS star, Shona Manderson.
When staying in Harrogate, generally during the week, he works as a PT at GYM, visits his family and sees his friends from his time at Rossett Acre.
He said:
I’ve lived here my whole life, all of my family, friends are here, we’re all still very close. The reason I work here is to make sure I’m seeing my mum, my dad, my friends. When I’m here I’m training – if not in the gym, then in the pool – and if not that I’m seeing people.
And what about the celebrity status he’s now got?
He said:
It’s not as crazy as it was. The first couple of years after it was a bit crazy – not just in Harrogate, but everywhere we went. You get the odd person that comes up still, and they'll ask some questions about the show and if me and Shona are still together and all sorts of different things, which is nice, people just want to know the ins and outs of it all.
But since being on TV I’ve tried to move to a different audience, and raise awareness of what can happen in family. So my dad had a stroke in 2019, he’s also in a care home. So I took on his window cleaning business and did that for three or four years for him – that’s the job I had on the show. I truly didn’t want to do it, I just did it for him, to keep it going. Then it got to a point in life where I'd done more than I needed to, so me and him had that conversation. We agreed to sell it.
While Mr Pilmoor might not be on regular nights out in Harrogate anymore, he does visit the more upmarket places, enjoying a spa day at Grantley Hall and he and Ms Manderson go to The Ivy here “quite a lot”.
But he agrees that Harrogate has changed a lot since his childhood.
He said:
When I'm driving through town, I'm like, that's new, that's different. There are a lot of different shops coming in. It’s a bit crazy seeing the amount of vape shops.
But Harrogate – it’s a beautiful place. It always will be and it's home for me. The only thing we could do with is a few more shops - get a little Zara in here, turn it into a mini-Leeds. I think that would bring more people to the town.
Would he ever make Harrogate a permanent home?
It's a conversation we are having at the moment. We will see. We'll see.
0