2020

What a Difference a Year Makes

Hello, friends. It’s been a little over a year since I went public with my diagnosis of early-onset Parkinson’s Disease (if you’re reading this and are shocked and confused, I apologize). Despite the diagnosis being one of the biggest challenges of my life, it’s still hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that such terrible news actually got me living my best life.

For starters, the money we raised last year (over $32k!) blew away our wildest dreams of what we thought we would raise. As glad as I was that we were able to raise enough funds to singlehandedly fund a clinical trial, I have to admit that your words of support and encouragement that accompanied those donations were what I’ll never forget. As I said on Facebook the night I went public, I felt like George Bailey at the end of It’s A Wonderful Life and, mentally, all those good vibes helped carry me through a lot of dark days.

Physically, I got into the best shape of my life, crosstraining, running, and cycling (obviously). I became a brand ambassador for the athletic apparel brand Pactimo and the health supplement company Nuun. In addition to planning to ride another 50-mile New England Parkinson’s Ride, I was also training for my first 10k (Holyoke St. Paddy’s), my first half marathon (Portland, ME), and my first full marathon (NYC, representing Team Fox) in 2020. Things were going as great as they could be.

Then COVID-19 happened. Working from home resulted in working longer hours & additional stress and therefore didn’t leave me enough time to work out, the state of the world exacerbated the anxiety and depression which accompanies PD, I also tweaked my knee totally derailing my training and, obviously, all races I had planned to compete in were canceled.

When I was diagnosed, my doctors had told me to do three things: exercise regularly, maximize sleep & minimize stress to help ward off the symptoms - good advice for anyone to heed, not just people with Parkinson’s. But since the quarantine, I fell out of all these good habits I had formed and I’m working hard to get back on the horse. After feeling great for the first time in ages, the struggle has been real these last few months.

If you’ve seen me in person in the last year and a half, you might have thought I looked better than you’d expected. If that’s the case, awesome - that means I’m doing a good job hiding the symptoms thanks to the medication I’m on and the lifestyle changes I’ve made. Hopefully, I am successfully covering up all the very-real stuff that I’m struggling with every day either directly related to the disease (for example, lack of mobility/dexterity on my dominant side to the point that typing and moving my mouse become highly-focused efforts which sometimes become so frustrating I have to resort to speech-to-text) or due to side effects from the meds (such as regular nausea to the point I can’t eat which, combined with the increased exercise, has lead to a weight loss that’s alarming my doctors). My point is: Parkinson’s Disease still sucks.

This is why the New England Parkinson’s Ride has become extremely important to me. The Woods family and all the participants and volunteers I met last year welcomed me and my family into theirs and have been a continual source of inspiration and a beacon of positivity. So, it was extremely disappointing when they made the decision to have a virtual ride in lieu of the traditional ride in Old Orchard Beach due to coronavirus, even though it’s the RIGHT decision.

But staying true to our team name, “Silver Linings,” we’re still going to ride, just not in the way we did last year. Many of you said you wanted to join our team and ride last year but the timing and logistics of getting up to Maine prevented you. This year we have organized THREE local, family-friendly rides (3 miles, 10 miles & 30 miles) scheduled for Saturday, September 12th. We’d love it if you could join our team and ride with us. If not, I hope you’ll consider donating again (or maybe for the first time). As always, 100 percent of Team Fox proceeds go straight to The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF).

To be completely transparent with you, I’ve been putting off asking for donations for months now. I’ve felt conflicted about soliciting donations given all that’s happening in the world today. Now more than ever, countless organizations need money to fund cures, research, and fight for social justice.

But Parkinson’s didn’t just go away. I am one of more than six million people worldwide living with Parkinson's today. It is the second most common neurological disorder. In the United States, approximately 60,000 new cases will be diagnosed this year alone. There is STILL no known cure.

That’s how this story ends unless we find a cure so that’s why I’m going to do the most I can, while I can, and keep riding, keep staying positive, keep spreading awareness, and keep focusing on the silver linings. In the world gone mad that is 2020, I hope that’s a message we can all get behind. Thank you all for your continued love and support.

Love, David