 |
 |
Tom I understand your need to take a rest from participation in the Unity Walk. After your 3 years of hard work and raising so much awareness and money, you deserve a break! But the beauty of the Unity Walk is its simplicity in how to participate. If you an type a few names from your email and push "Send." you can raise funding for research - and right from your home! What I love about the Parkinsosn Unity Walk is that it divides its money up evenly between major PD organizations and goes SPECIFICALLY to research. I hope you stay as an active participant (I'm sure you will). If others reading want to know more, visit www.unitywalk.org (you can search for a particular walker once at the site and donate your funds that way - I'm there!) Best to you Tom! And by the way, I lost 20 lbs earlier to dyskinesias, but boy, did I ever need to! LOL Peggy Willocks -------------- Original message -------------- > This is my last year doing this so lets make it count! > > Parkinson's, > > Each year thousands of patients, their families and friends gather in New York's > Central Park for a two-mile walk to raise awareness of Parkinson's disease and > funds for research. I am supporting the Parkinson's Unity Walk and hope you > will join me by walking with me and my team. Help us raise funds towards my > team's goal. When you click on the link provided you will be forwarded to my > Personal Donation Page. Please, take action with me to find a cure for > Parkinson’s disease. > > > > Recently I was approached about leading a team for the 3rd year, or is it the > 4th year, for the 2005 Unity Walk in New York. Having proudly managed a great > group of friends over the past few years as the team captain for Team Yopa (and > coordinating the teams raising of over $100,000), I understand the hard work all > of you put into this effort in the past. > > > > Unfortunately I have not been doing so well as of late. The last 6 months have > brought many changes into my life. First and foremost I reluctantly resigned as > the President of YOPA (but will always remain one of the orignal founders). > Healthwise it has been a rough year. I am at the 5 year mark and have been on > SINEMET since day one (take an excess of 1300mg a day, SINEMET 25/100 and 50/200 > CR 4x daily, with COMTAN and AMANTADINE. > > > > My speech as many of you are aware has degraded rapidly. Although still strong > most of the day it is reduced to a stuttering, low, mumble for an hour in the > afternoon and for the whole night (6 to 10pm). > > > > Weight loss is taking its toll as well. Having lost 20pds in the last year it is > now mostly loss of muscle weight. > > > > I still work full time as an IT Specialist for the Department of Energy, it is a > struggle but I will not let PD beat me. And as many of you are aware I medically > retired at 80% disabilty from the US Air Force in 2002 after 16 year of > honorable duty in the Intelligence career field. > > > > Enough about my sob story, time to get down to business. > > > > I have set a lofty goal of 100k and 100 walkers. We can do this together, I know > many of you and many of you know me. I have been there for many of you over the > years and plan on being here for you for years to come. > > > > Know I need you. I need you to join this team of friends and family. Bring your > spouse, parents, children, friends, and your dogs! > > > > Join us in raising crucial money for pD research but more importantly help us > raise awareness. > > > > Keep a close eye on the old www.youngparkinsons.com website as fellow PWP Jim > McCumber brings it back to life. We offer the best daily, non biased PD related > news items and plan on bringing you a lot of new interactive functions over the > next few months. We want to make this your site, you have a voice in it. If you > would like to help please email us at [log in to unmask] or > [log in to unmask] > > > > This is not an attempt to compete with any other organization or team, it is an > effort to get friends back together and to have a great time in New York as we > have done in the past. > > > > We will be coordinating a team dinner, giving free team tshirts and other free > PD awareness items. We will also be providing discounted hotel and aifare. We > hope to get the majority of the team in the same hotel. > > > > So, if you have walked with us in the past you know what a great time we have > there. If you havent visit the message board at www.youngparkinsons.com and look > at the photos from past walks. > > > > And I can guarantee that our own celebrity, a 41 year veteran of Parkinson's, Mr > Russ Ahlstrom, will be there once again to lead our efforts! For more info on > Russ email me to purchase his book: It's All In Your Head, Dealing & Living > With Parkinson's. > > > > On a final note I would like to announce a new project I am working on, a > documentary entitled "A Day In The Life Of A Young Onset Parkinsons Disease > Patient", or "Parkinson's: Not Just For Grandma Anymore.". > > > > This film will show the daily struggles, leaving nothing out. From restless > sleep, to getting up 5 times a night, showering, grooming, dressing, driving, > trying to maintain a job, and much more. More importantly it will show the good > side of PD as well (yes pD has a good side). THat is the people, the friends, > the closeness of our community. It will also show that parkinson's can be > tolerated and accepted, it does not have to be a life ender. We dont have to > "wait for a cure", we can live life and have fun (although maybe a bit more > shaky or rigid then before). It will be shown at the Santa Fe Film Festival in > 2005 and hopefully be broadcast on PBS or public television across the nation. > More on the film in the coming months. > > > > As you can see I am a bit pumped up. I am rested and ready to roll, are you > ready to roll with me? Lets do it! > > > > TOGETHER WE CAN WIN! > > > > Each year thousands of People Living with Parkinson's Disease(PLWP's), their > families and friends gather in New York's Central Park for a gentle two-mile > walk to raise awareness of Parkinson's disease and funds for research. > > > > Please, support the Parkinson's Unity Walk by making a donation that will go > directly to research to find the cause and cure of Parkinson’s disease. > > Login to visit my personal web page and help me in my efforts to support > Parkinson's Unity Walk > > ****************************************************************************** > Some email systems do not support the use of links and therefore this link may > not appear to work. If so, copy and paste the following into your browser: > http://puw.kintera.org/faf/r.asp?t=4&i=64467&u=64467-65981153&e=251683769 > ****************************************************************************** > > Thomas Berdine > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn > In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn