I am setting out to walk the Camino Franca (125km) of the Camino de Santiago in 5 days - October 15-20. As many of you know, my mother was diagnosed with Parkinsons disease in April 2006. Always a fit and active woman with fierce determination, she chose to face this disease the way she always faced life, head on, with all the courage and strenght she could muster and surrounded by those who love her - my family being the first of many of those. Nevertheless, her condition has gradually worsened - there is no cure as yet for parkinsons nor is there any medication to slow the effects - only medication to make the conditiion more bearable to live with. At present, it is estimated that there are 7-10 million parkinsons sufferers worldwide with 8-10k of those living in Ireland. All I knew about Parkinsons disease in 2006 was that Michael J Fox suffered from it and that it involved a tremor or a whole lot of shaking - well MJF does have it and is remarkable in his conviction to the cause but the tremors are really only one side effect to this progressive motor neuron disease - there are many others: slowness of movement, rigidity, freezing, difficulty in swallow, loss of voice, sleep disorder, memory loss, lack of coordination, loss of facial expression and the list constinues. Understanding and appreciating this condition more has prompted me to stop stressing and to start doing - hence this page and hence this cause. Therefore, I thank you for visiting, reading and I hope I have imparted a little more light on what Parkinsons is and how those amongst us suffer. Second, if you have it within your means, I would be most grateful for any donation you could find to give to this cause - it means so much to me, my mother and most importantly to the research into a cure for this life changing illness. Thank you. Mary