SuperWalk For Parkinson’s Disease This Weekend
Posted September 7, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Summer and fall are the seasons for walkathons. In fact, this weekend there are two in the city. One is the Weekend To End Breast Cancer, which garners a lot of attention every year. And the other, that practically goes unnoticed, is for a disease that affects a person’s ability to move at all.
John Scaini had no idea he was suffering from the early stages of Parkinson’s – at age 45.
“I had no clue,” says Scaini. “I was shaking and my family asked me, ‘why is your thumb shaking?'”
John is one of tens of thousands of Canadians who are forced to deal with the disease. Until Michael J. Fox and Muhammad Ali began their public battles it was an illness that was virtually unknown in the public eye. He says it has been difficult, but Scaini has learned to live, and walk, with Parkinson’s.
“It was devastating at first,” states Scaini. “All the plans I had for my future had to change.”
This Sunday, Earl Bales Park will host the 18th annual SuperWalk for Parkinson’s, an illness that causes muscle tremors and stiffness.
The annual walk is held in communities across Canada and organizers hope to raise $25 million this year in Toronto alone. The homegrown heroes who talk, run, blade and cycle for Parkinson’s help more than 100,000 patients nationwide.
Symptoms of Parkinson’s disease
