As requested, I am re-sending the original announcement. Please feel
free to distribute it anywhere or put it on you websites.
******
Below is the text of a message which has been crafted by several members
of the list. I am asking each list member to forward this message to all
of the media in your area and, if possible, all of the religious
institutions. If you can't find an email address, please print the
message (removing this paragraph) and mail or deliver it to any and all
groups you can think of. If English is not the first language in
your area, please translate it and forward it on. Someone asked me where
I wanted this message to go. I said "everywhere in the world where there
is someone who can contribute to Parkinson's research. Let's spread the
word. Barb
***TUTU TO HELP PARKINSON'S DISEASE SUFFERERS***
South Africa's Desmond M. Tutu, Archbishop Emeritus and Nobel Peace
Laureate, Robert W. Woodruff Visiting Professor of Theology, Emory
University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA has offered to issue a prayer for all
those worldwide who are suffering from Parkinson's Disease to mark World
Parkinson's Awareness Month in April.
The Archbishop offered to write a prayer for the occasion following a
telephone conversation and a long emailed letter from Ivan Suzman,
Portland, Maine, who has advanced Young Onset Parkinson's. Suzman, a
disabled anthropologist, (and formerly a leading anti-apartheid activist)
has become a Parkinson's activist and a member of the Parkinson
Information Exchange Network (PIEN), an internet discussion list,
notified members of the list of the Archbishop's willingness to "do
something for those suffering from Parkinson's". Later, Tutu's office
notified the listowner, Barbara Patterson, another Young Onset"
Parkinsonian and a secretary at McMaster University School of Nursing,
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, that the Archbishop had decided that his
prayer will be issued through PIEN.
Patterson's internet list has more than 1,800 subscribers in 36 countries.
Parkinson's Disease (PD) is a chronic, slowly progressive neurological
condition that affects a small area of cells in the mid brain known as
the substantia nigra. Gradual degeneration of these cells causes a
reduction in a vital chemical known as "dopamine". This decrease in
dopamine can produce one or more of the classic signs of Parkinson's
Disease.
Although an estimated 15% of patients are diagnosed before age 50, PD is
generally considered a disease which targets older adults. Parkinson's
disease affects up to 10%, in some populations, of those persons over the
age of 60. To date, there is no known prevention or cure for Parkinson's
Disease.
Notable persons with the disease include Pope John Paul II, Muhammad Ali,
American Attorney General, Janet Reno, Gandhi photographer Margaret
Bourke-White and actor Michael J. Fox.
===========================================================================
Barbara Patterson [log in to unmask]
HSC 2J22 905-525-9140, ext. 22403
School of Nursing
===========================================================================
