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Halfway through Parkinson's awareness month, it occurs to me that we are doing the same things we've always done and expecting different outcomes. This is as effective as banging our heads against the wall. It is time to wake people up, to deliver our message beyond the PD community, and to involve everyone in our cause. These are my thoughts…
We are the faces of Parkinson's disease. We are not strangers. We are your husbands and wives, your adult daughters and sons, your fathers and mothers, your grandmothers and grandfathers, and your friends and neighbors.
We know a secret that you don't: We are all "temporarily healthy," until a doctor tells us we are not. Without a cure, many of you will one day look in the mirror and see our faces looking back at you.
Finding a cure must be a priority for all of us. We can't sit back and expect celebrities with PD to buy us a cure. Nor is it enough for only a small percentage of people to participate in clinical trials. Nothing in life is free. We each must bear some responsibility for bringing about the cure.
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Polio was defeated by ordinary people who donated their spare change over the course of 17 years. We've already been fighting PD in earnest for three times as long.
What will you commit to do this week to further the cause? I challenge each of us, myself included, to do something a little novel, let us know your plan, and report on your results. What works in one area can be expanded to others. Think BIG!
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