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SPOKANE: Parkinson's Patient To Start Bloomsday Race 03:31 PM PDT on Saturday, May 1, 2004 By MELISSA PHILLIPS / KREM SPOKANE - The man who starts this year's Bloomsday race Sunday morning is Steve Evans, who has not let Parkinson’s Disease stand in his way when it comes to running marathons. Steve has finished Bloomsday 16 times. "The best time I've ever done is about 1:06," he said. This year, in addition to running, he has the added responsibility of starting the other runners. "It's a huge honor," he said. Bloomsday organizers asked Steve to be the celebrity starter. "I don't know, I don't really feel like I'm a celebrity at all…but I guess somehow I qualify," he said. To understand how Steve earned this honor, you have to go back to 1984 - the year he was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease, a disorder of the central nervous system. It causes tremors, spontaneous movements and impaired balance. There is no cure and over time the disease gets worse. "When the doctor told me I had Parkinson's Disease, I was so stunned, I couldn't even come up with a question," he said. "It got so bad that i had to have surgery to fix it." Steve underwent deep brain stimulation. If you look at his chest, you can see the neurotransmitter devices - these deliver electrical impulses through a wire to his brain. "It set my clock back about 10 years,” said Steve. “It's not a cure, not a cure by any means, the disease still progresses." Even with the treatment, Steve said he still stumbles, experiences tremors and slurs his words. But he doesn't let that stop him. He finished a marathon this spring. "No matter how small a triumph, you can just do it," he said. SOURCE: KING5-TV http://tinyurl.com/376u7 * * * ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn