I was diagnosed at the age of 21 possibly my symptoms started at 16.
I remember that day in the doctor’s office hearing: we believe you have Parkinson’s disease. I was sitting there as if I was witnessing someone else get diagnosed.
I started fighting. I saw the disease as my enemy and myself as a soldier in the war zone. I felt exhausted, powerless and I cried almost every single day for months.
I felt lonely.
Gradually as my symptoms progressed, I realized I was not winning this war, I needed to treat it differently. Something beautiful about experiencing major life events at an early age is that I stopped wasting my time and energy on things that are not important. I started to think about what’s my priorities, who I want to be, and what’s my purpose in life. It taught me to believe everyone is doing their best everyday, and it taught me to be patient and have empathy. I used to be critical of myself, I was my worst enemy. but I learned to treat myself with kindness, with love, and with patience. Pd at this time became my teacher.
My relationship with Parkinson transformed again about 3 years ago. That was a time when my symptoms progressed really fast. because of my muscle spasms in the neck, even breathing was challenging. I couldn’t work anymore because I couldn’t sit still to attend meetings, I couldn’t write, I couldn’t read, and cooking and eating had become such a chore. But that was also the time when I learned about something unbelievable and amazing. three people with Parkinson’s and a caretaker were going to ride their bikes across Canada from British Columbia to Newfoundland that summer. they are going to ride an average of 100 km a day for over 3 months.
At that time, the longest distance I rode my bike was 20 km. But their adventure opened a door for me, it let me to believe that ordinary people can do extraordinary things.
It let me to get on my bike every single day for 5 months and every day I pushed further. i started from 20 km to 30 to 40, by the time they finished their cross-country adventure in September. I signed up for Parkinson Canada’s Pedaling for Parkinson Orangeville fundraising event. I was going to ride 100 km on that day. I didn’t know what it felt like to ride for 100 km in one day, but I knew that if these people can ride 100 km every day, I could at least try my best to ride it for one day. On that day I rode 108 km (I got lost in the beginning), and it took me 5 hours and 57 minutes to finish.
One and half years after my first 100 km, I decided to go on long distance bike ride to raise fund and awareness for Parkinson’s. From May 1st to September 28th last year, I rode across the US from Virginia to San Diego and across half of Canada from Newfoundland to Ontario. During the 9,500 km of riding and over 60,000 m of climbing, Parkinson’s disease has become my guide. It guided me to beautiful places across the continent and more importantly, it connected me to hundreds of amazing people and communities who care about this disease.
