Happy World Parkinson’s Day!
Well, it’s actually the 11th April but I’m getting this blog in early. April is Parkinson’s Awareness Month (I think I’m quite aware about it, thanks all the same) and the global organisation “PD Avengers” is trying to get 11th April officially recognised as a global health day to help raise the profile of Parkinson’s Disease, over 200 years since it was first documented by James Parkinson in 1817. Still no cure.
One of the benefits that Parkinson’s brings is that I am now on a medical condition driving licence. This entails renewing my licence every three years. I can understand the thinking behind this – mainly from a safety perspective. After all, someone suffering from a movement disorder* should be regularly assessed for safety. Unfortunately, one of the symptoms of Parkinson’s is micrographia (tiny handwriting) which in my case means my writing is more illegible than the average Doctor’s prescription, and the DVLA require a paper form to be completed by hand. So, my wife completed the form for me and I attempted to sign as required in several boxes.
If you’re not aware by now, on Saturday 8th April I will be running (walking and very likely crawling) the slightly more than 50 miles from Worthing to Eastbourne along the South Downs Way. We have a 13 hour cutoff, and based on current training it is likely to be a close run thing. I’m using it as a fundraiser for CureParkinsons, a charity whose sole purpose is to cure the disease. So far we have raised £1,000 which is a fantastic amount and hopefully we will add substantially to this over the four races that make up the Centurion Running 50 mile slam (details here: https://puckfarkinsons.uk/latest-fundraising/). The fundraising link is here: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/puckfarkinsons. One of the symptoms of Parkinson’s is fatigue – so I’m already handicapped when I toe the line at Worthing College (not that I’m getting my excuses in early or anything!)
*movement disorder my arse. There are around 40 symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease, the majority of which are not movement related – even if you count constipation (which is definitely a lack of movement) https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/parkinsons-disease/symptoms/.