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Peggy thank you for the reply and I have been doing what I can with my life being so hectic right now. If it was up to me I would quit my job and raise awareness full time. I have TEAM YOUNGPARKINSONS.com in place and have managed a few members on short notice and am doing the email fundraising. We wont come close to the $40,000k we managed last year but that is fine. There is a slight chance that I will make it. Walmart may be sponsoring Mark Comes and myself (cross your fingers). I don’t need to lose any weight, cant afford to! I have to fight to keep my weight at 130. Lately at night though I have noticed increased dyskensia in my left leg. Drives me nuts! Guess the 5 years of SINEMET and current intake of 1500mg+ a day is catching up on me. So far I am able to still work full time at the Dept of Energy facility here in Albuquerque as an IT Technician. Each day I get up and think "will this be the last day". Then I stumble out of bed, down a SINEMET 25/100 and a CR 50/200 with a COMTAN and an AMANTADINE chaser, wait about an hour, climb into my truck, barely able to turn the steering wheel and hoping the guards at the gates on base wont stop me. They did once and said I looked shaky. My days are long but I love the job. The federal agents I work for treat me no different and they are patient when I can not speak. I hope to be there for a long time. Since I left the Young Onset Parkinson's Association (YOPA), which was a hard thing for me to do, I have had time to recharge my batteries and think about our plight. And I always come to the same conclusion: The world still perceives Michael J Fox as the sole young onset! We must change this. Two years ago I co-produced a PSA for YOPA (it can be viewed at www.youngparkinsons.com/psa.htm It came out very good and got some airplay on TV stations across the nation. Unfortunately we did not have the expertise to get it out to a mass market. Today I am working on a film with my filmmaker friend Tim Costello. It has been in my head for 3 years and I have to get it out (not much room in there). We are in need of funding. I emailed the various PD organizations but received no reply. Which surprised me as I have done quite a bit for them. I will be sending them packets in the mail with samples of Tims's past work and an overview of the project. Maybe that will interest them. The film will not be for profit and will be shown at the Santa Fe Film Festival. I plan on offering it free as an awareness and understanding's piece to the community, doctors, anyone. We anticipate a low dollar figure of $10,000 and my good friend and your Patti Lightners family has got us going with a gift of $1,000. Thank you Patti. I am thinking of posting a website about the project and adding a donation page in hopes that the PD Community will come together and make this a reality. SEE BELOW: "OFF" Young Onset Parkinson's Disease We plan on entering it into this years Santa Fe Film Festival and after that we will be sending it to cable access nationwide, PBS, and the national affiliates, neurologists, PDF, NPF, APDA, FOX, etc. The film will be a combination of Parkinson's through my eyes and through the eyes of others I come in touch with. I want to touch on on the basics (tremor, rigidity, bradykeneis, masked face, slurred speech, etc) but also want to bring out the things like sex and gambling addictions. I can have Dr Jill Marajama-Lyons do a brief explanation of the disease at the start, or during the film as symptoms occur. We want to show the good, the bad, and the humorous side of Parkinson's and let both current and future Parkinsonians know that life exists after diagnosis. We will film me in bed with my feet going nuts, sleeping, night walking, showering, grooming, dressing, cooking, eating, driving, etc etc.. The film will also have photos of the thousands of young onset worldwide. And hopefully an appearance by my mentor, hero, and best friend Russ "Lightning" Ahlstrom who has furthered the work of the great Sydney Dorros. "Accommodation without Surrender" is their battle cry! We will show the challenges we face daily and how to "Accommodation Without Surrender". As Russ Ahlstrom and Sydney Dorros would say. We are putting packets together for potential sponsors. The packets will contain some of Tims short films, the YPOA Commercial, and an overview of the project. So far Patti Lightner has given us $1,000 to start, but we will need about $10,000 for the project. Tom Berdine Founder; YoungParkinsons.com CoFounder, Young Onset Parkinson's Association President, YOPA, 2002-2004 Diagnosed with Young Onset Parkinson's Disease in 2001 “I don’t suffer from Parkinson’s…I thrive on it.” –Tom Berdine -----Original Message----- From: Peggy Willocks [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Thursday, March 17, 2005 3:49 AM Subject: Re: Please support the cause... 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 Tom Berdine Founder; YoungParkinsons.com (www.youngparkinsons.com) Co-Founder, Young Onset Parkinson's Association (www.yopa.org) President, Retired, YOPA, 2002-2004 Diagnosed with Young Onset Parkinson's Disease in 2001 “I don’t suffer from Parkinson’s…I thrive on it.” –Tom Berdine Tom Berdine 10409 Bellamah Ave Ne Albuquerque, NM 87112 (505) 293-5612 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn