PARKINSON’S DISEASE STRIKES BASKETBALL STAR
(Springfield, GA)—For twelve seasons, Brian Grant prowled the courts of the NBA, battling the league’s best centers. Now, after being diagnosed with young onset Parkinson’s disease, Grant is battling a different opponent.
Mr. Grant recently revealed his diagnosis to the world, becoming one of the fewer than 20% of all patients to be diagnosed before the age of fifty. Kay Mixson Jenkins, author of the children’s book Who is Pee Dee? Explaining Parkinson’s Disease to a Child, is also a young onset patient.
“It’s not easy being told that you have a degenerative disease that has no cure,” says Ms. Jenkins, whose book teaches children about Parkinson’s disease through the story of Colt, a young boy whose toy panda bear teaches him how to cope with the symptoms that are affecting Colt’s mother.
Ms. Jenkins’s, founder of the non-profit Parkinson’s in the Park, was diagnosed with the disease when she was just thirty-four. She wroteWho Is Pee Dee? for kids who may be asking “What is Parkinson’s Disease?” or “What are Parkinson’s disease symptoms?”
“It’s really important that people look at role models such as Brian Grant and see that this disease is affecting people of all ages, races and fitness levels,” says Ms. Jenkins. “We need as much funding and awareness as possible.
Mr. Grant and Ms. Jenkins are part of the demographic addressed in Who Is Pee Dee?; a demographic that can find support through some of the organizations highlighted in Ms. Jenkins’s book, including:
The National Parkinson Foundation: www.parkinson.org.
Focus on a Cure: www.focusonacure.org.
The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research: www.michaeljfox.org.
For more information, contact the author directly via kmj@ParkinsonsInThePark.org.
Photo:
http://www.prlog.org/
