Its Parkinsons Awareness Week (20th to the 26th April 201
5)
Parkinson’s UK are:
Using the hashtag #upyourfriendly. Share, retweet, spread the word.
Take the up your friendly challenge at upyourfriendly.com
Watch this video for more from Diane, who appears in the up your friendly film:
Everyone has their heros when growing up. When I was six? All I wanted to be was Marty McFly from Back to the Future. The guy was amazing; he skateboarded while hanging off the back of pick-ups, played the guitar, had a gorgeous girlfriend, his best friend (Doc Brown) was a mad scientist, he fought off terrorists and when his DeLorean hit 88mph he was able through the joyous mystery that was the on board Flux Capacitor and a nuclear reaction to generate 1.21 gigawatts could travel through time and that was just in the opening twenty minutes of the film. GREAT SCOTT!
Marty McFly was of course played by Michael J Fox, who would wow audiences the world over in two further Back to the Future movies. In 1998, while starring in the popular sitcom Spin City he announced that he had been diagnosed with Parkinsons Disease seven years earlier but was making it public now as the symptoms had worsened. Although not the first celeb to be diagnosed with this debilitating disease, it was the one many people of my generation remembered because no one liked the idea of Marty McFly being sick.
It was a brave and noble decision to make for any actor, especially one starring in one of the most popular shows on TV. But it was a necessary one. One that would shed a public light on this disease and help sufferers alleviate any attached stigma.
Courtesy of the Parkinsons UK website .
What is Parkinsons?
– Its a progressive neurological condition effecting people who do not have enough of a chemical called dopamine because nerve cells in their brain have died.
How many people have Parkinsons?
– Roughly one in every five hundred, thats about 127,000 people in the UK alone.
What are the symptoms?
– Anyone with Parkinsons has different symptoms but it usually manifests itself by tremors, rigidity, slowness of movement, tiredness and pain.
If you want to find out more about Parkinson’s please visit Parkinson’s UK at http://www.parkinsons.org.uk/