LONG READ: Meet Martin Heffernan, the Cashel man fighting Parkinson’s with sport

In August 2022, Cashel native Martin Heffernan was officially diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease having lived with a tremor in his right hand for over three years.

Since then he has taken up table tennis, competed at international events, cycled in the south of France, and practices a weekly exercise program that some men half his age could only dream of.

His most recent sporting venture took him to the Scottish Parkinson’s International Open for what was the third edition of the annual tournament, and Martin’s second time competing. The event, held at the National Sports Training Centre in Inverclyde, saw no less than 90 participants living with Parkinson’s from countries all around the world playing table tennis at a world class facility.

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Despite taking up the sport just 18 months prior to the 2025 Open, Martin was determined not to leave empty-handed and walked away with a bronze medal in the Class 3 Men’s Doubles competition alongside Maltese player Adrian Casha.

Martin and his wife Mary sat down with the Tipperary Star to discuss the scientific benefits of playing table tennis whilst living with Parkinson’s, and how the sport is being utilised to fight the symptoms of the fastest-growing neurological condition worldwide.

“I took it up in March of 2024,” Martin began.

“I used to play it years ago with the children when we’d be on holidays in France, campsites in that day always used to have a table. But I only started seriously playing in last year and myself and Trish Noonan set up up a proper table tennis weekly meet-up at Larkspur Park in Cashel.

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“We put advertisements up in the local shops and credit union and the likes, gradually two or three came along, now we have around 13 regulars with people from Croatia, Ukraine, Venezuela, all over really!”

Larkspur Park is a popular sports club in the centre of Cashel offering a wide variety of sports to its members including tennis, pitch and putt, badminton, and squash. Table tennis is now a weekly part of the club too, and served as great practice for Martin ahead of his trip to Scotland.

“There was no language barrier at all really,” Martin said of his Maltese doubles partner Adrian Casha in Inverclyde.

“We’d never played before, I just got paired with him at the event. I suppose we just didn’t get in each other’s way at the end of the table! We did click and have a good partnership, and the team that beat us when we secured the bronze were the team that went on to win it out.”

Socialising and medal collecting are two things Martin has enjoyed since taking up the sport, however it’s the science behind table tennis and its ability to fly in the face of Parkinson’s most common symptons that have really peaked both Martin and Mary’s interest.

In the autumn of 2024, Martin penned an article in Parkinson’s Ireland magazine titled ‘Anyone for Table Tennis?’. In it he stressed how the sport improved hand-eye coordination and stimulates mental alertness and concentration which are all impacted by Parkinson’s.

“Table tennis requires one to move fast over short distances which helps to improve both large and small muscle movements while it’s easy on the joints,” Martin wrote two years on from his official diagnosis.

“It’s also a great way to help maintain leg, arm, and core strength which is important as Parkinson’s impacts the range and amplitude of movement.

Martin’s article also points to a study by Fukuoka University School of Medicine in Japan which took place in 2020. That particular study found that people who participated in a table tennis-based exercise programme once a week for six months showed improvement in their Parkinson’s symptoms.

One year on from that article being published by Parkinson’s Ireland, Martin’s wife Mary says she has seen first-hand just how much the sport can keep her husband’s tremor at bay and affect his mood and quality of life overall.

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“He comes home so much more relaxed, but with so much energy and really full of life. We feel like we are way behind here in Ireland with this line of thinking in terms of promoting it for people living with Parkinson’s.

“We want to make people aware of it, because we have seen the benefits of it and we saw in Scotland how other countries are adapting it and you love to see it.”

Martin himself says he feels revitalised when playing a match and that the benefits from playing are tangible in real time.

“When I’m playing the game I don’t think about the tremor at all. I don’t really notice it when the match is happening. If there was a little gap during the game then my hand might start trembling, but when I’m playing I’m just concentrating so much on the ball and getting the ball back.

“It’s one of the fastest sports in the world for reaction time, right up there with badminton. Your mind is concentrating so much on the movement, you really don’t have time to think about anything else.”

As well as weekly table tennis sessions at Larkspur, Martin has created what’s known as a ‘Bat and Chat’ which encourages people living with Parkinson’s to come and give it a go. They meet around once every four or five weeks and enjoy a cup of tea and a chat between games.

Anyone interested can contact Martin at mheffernan1990@gmail.com.

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