Matthew Akpan holds three Guiness World records: two for completing marathons dressed as John Cena, and the other for guessing the most amount of WWE wrestlers theme tunes in a minute. This has now become an annual activity for the 35-year old from East Leeds living with Asperger Syndrome, who started off by getting his first world record as a tribute to his late father who passed away from kidney failure in 2021.

Since then, he has raised money for several charities, participated in several different types of running events, and been nominated for many awards in the Yorkshire region. This year, his focus is on raising money for MND. He holds the record for the most wins at the Woodhouse Moor parkrun 5k with 50 wins.

Matthew shares his journey and his experience of growing up Black in Leeds this Black History Month. 

Why is Black history important? 

Black History is important for me because it defines the narrative of who I am, especially being a young Black man being brought up and raised in Britian, a predominately White country. Different generations of my family migrated from outside the British isles, my dad being from Nigeria coming here in 1980 to study and live here and my grandparents on my mum's side being from Dominica and coming to settle and live here in the 1950s. So, I always like to remember where they came from and in essence who I am. Although I have never been to Dominica or Nigeria, it is good to always remember how those before me came and lived and how I am here in the UK now, and that helps me to reclaim the narrative back.  

What heritage means to me

Heritage is important in the sense that it helps me remember my ancestors, who they were, and what they did. This can give me reasons as to why I act the way I do and do the things I do. 

For example, being determined, hardworking and reliable, and a good athletic runner, and my achievements running marathon Guinness World Records: these are traits that my dad would tell me he grew up with in Nigeria. Moreover, having to be self-disciplined from an early age is also something my dad taught me as he was living in a country where he had no family members when he first came here. Some of this maybe explains the way I was taught brought up to be resilient, and some of those traits that are linked to being on the autism spectrum which I am. So, I have a better understanding of myself knowing the background of my parents’ heritage.

I would not say heritage comes up much in my philanthropy work or my speaking engagements. However, I feel this is attributed more to the fact that every time I enter an environment, like when I was on the red carpet of a National Television Award or the Yorkshire Choice Awards, or even back in school, at lot of the time I was the only Black person in the vicinity. In fact, where I live, there is no other Black family living on the same street. There were 30 of us at the NTA awards and I was the only Black person present; I used to go to school in a bus with 40 other students, but for almost all my years there I was the only one Black person.

This meant that growing up I unintentionally blended in with a lot of White people, where most of the time I just completely forget about my heritage. This caught me out many times, unfortunately; there were some slurs at school which I now understand as an adult. I feel this affected me throughout my teenage years until I began to mix with other people of Black heritage. I also started studying Black history and began to integrate better with society in general. But if I had been taught about Black culture from an earlier age or been around this, my early years would have been a lot easier to manage.

John Cena, philanthropy, and inspirational speaking

I now have three Guinness World Records, two for running dressed up as John Cena over the marathon and half marathon distance, and the other for guessing the most amount of WWE wrestlers theme tunes in one minute. I started off doing my first world record as a tribute to my late father who passed away from kidney failure in 2021, but it has now become an annual event for me.

John Cena himself congratulated me for my achievements on social media, the only person I have ever seen him congratulate like this from the UK is darts player Luke Littler.

Becoming a public speaker fell on me by accident; I never had the intention to do this when I started my Guinness World Records or before that. But having heard a lot of people call me inspirational and a role model to celebrities, friends, family, work colleagues, and then the award nominations I received, it became clear to me that I had a platform and people were interested in my story. So it is now about empowering others, especially those who are in the minority, to open themselves up. A lot of people do not get a chance to be heard and interpretations are made very quickly on people by people, certainly one of those is being Black-skinned; but what I am doing is helping people break down those barriers and learning more myself at the same time.

Impact on the community and future plans

My next aim is to set up a junior parkrun at Potternewton Park, an area known for its diversity of people and high rate of people with diabetes. Hopefully, it will get kids started early in sport and the exercise can prevent the onset of conditions like these. I hope that the young people of the world can push forward these values of healthy living and lifestyle for future generations. I wish this to be my legacy for years to come.

I plan to run the Great North for my fourth record.