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you are an amazing and courageous womwn i saalute you and your efforts for others a huge hug to you and yours judy >From: Stan or Joan Snyder <[log in to unmask]> >Reply-To: Parkinson's Information Exchange Network ><[log in to unmask]> >To: [log in to unmask] >Subject: Re: Requesting Media Coverage on PD >Date: Wed, 24 May 2000 05:04:56 -0500 > >I made 1 phone call to my local ABC affiliate & asked them if they had >anyone lined up to tie in w/ MJFox's last show of Spin City. The guy at >the newsroom was ecstatic to have me volunteer to be interviewed. I sent >him an email listing some of my favorite pd web sites >and asked him to please do his homework before he came! Within an hour >received another phone call asking to interview me on the same >day-today!! It's not so hard once you make them aware that you are >indeed newsworthy! > >This is a piece I wrote for the PLWP website: > "My newspaper didn't even mention that April was Parkinson's Awareness >month...why not?" I have been asked this question so many times recently >and I always have the same answer: the news media in any area just >reports on things that it considers news. If you think that PD Awareness >is news, then YOU must make it newsworthy. YOU must make the media in >your area "Parkinson-friendly." > > This is not something that happens overnight, but if you really want >to see more mention of PD, NOW is the time to start. Think of this as >addressing an audience, trying to educate & help your friends and >neighbors to understand what it is like to have PD. Take advantage of >the inroads that Janet Reno, Michael J. Fox and Muhammad Ali have blazed >across the TV screen-who can forget Ali struggling to light the Olympic >Torch or Janet Reno shaking like crazy but still in charge during a >recent Oprah appearance or Michael J Fox testifying before Arlan >Spector, obviously under-medicated? > > I am no way in the ranks of these trailblazers, but I must admit to >being uneasy about the way that I appear on camera. I have gained so >much weight since my 2nd pallidotomy and because of the mirapex that I >hate the sight of myself on camera. My face has no expression anymore, >my voice is gone, I drool on myself and I cry when asked anything >remotely personal. I have taken the TV cameras along with me as a fiber >optic camera was slid up my nose and down my throat and my vocal chords >were displayed for all the 5 o'clock news watchers to see, flapping >aimlessly in an attempt to vibrate together. I was filmed in hospital >gown, shower cap and footies as I walked into have collagen injected >into my vocal chords and then was filmed unconscious with my mouth pried >open & breathing loudly through my nose. Newspaper pictures of me have >included me getting a metal halo screwed into my head on the occasion of >my surgeries and most recently, a fetching picture of me in a wild & >very obnoxious balloon hat at my last Parkinson's Awareness Day >festivities. > >The point of all of these true confessions is that it would much easier >and kinder for me to stay at home with my lift chair & the TV remote and >let my disease take it's course. But the truth is: PD is not glamorous >nor is it pretty nor will I allow it to impose its will upon my life any >more than is absolutely necessary. I push myself to be seen in public, >bouncing off walls, falling down on Main Street, or whatever it takes to >make the public notice that what is happening to me, happens to millions >of others and our voices must be heard. > > It all starts when you decide that you are no longer willing to >allow your disease to dictate your life. When you reach that point, you >will find the strength & courage deep inside of yourself...you will find >yourself talking to the media and you will allow yourself to be seen in >the unflattering light that PD forces upon us and YOU are the way to >awareness!! >-- >Joan E. Snyder 48/10 >[log in to unmask] ><http://www.newcountry.nu/pd/members/snyder/page1.htm> >"Hang tough.....no way through it but to do it." > Chris-in-the-Morning (Northern Exposure) ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com