The story of pdplan4life

We are two middle-aged women living about 1,500 miles apart whose paths crossed while working for an on line national patient advocacy group. Our chance encounter evolved into a long distance friendship, built not only on sharing a progressive disease, but also a love of chocolate malts, shopping, and talking on the phone, which we do at great length several times a day.

20th-century writer Anais Nin described our friendship to a “t” when she said, “Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.”

For us, the “new world” is our web site — pdplan4life.com — launched in June, 2007. It grew out of our shared desire to “give back” to the Parkinson’s community as a “thank you” for the help and support each of us has received along our separate journeys with this disease. None of us should have to go down this difficult path alone. We are here for any of you who need us, just as we are for each other. Whether you have a question, or need a friendly ear or a shoulder to cry on, feel free to email us.

Part personal diary and part reference book, with healthy doses of humor mixed in to make our honesty easier to hear, pdplan4life is our vehicle for sharing our challenges with and triumphs over PD. We speak from the perspectives with which we have lived — that of young onset patients, girlfriends, wives, and mothers of adult children.

Our hope is to inspire others to make a conscious decision to live well with Parkinson’s. We never imagined how deeply our message would resonate with people with Parkinson’s (PWP) all over the world. Nor did we anticipate the positive feedback we would receive and how this would motivate us as well.

Our pdplan4life priorities

• Living well with Parkinson’s
• Exercising daily
• Participating in clinical trials
• Advocating on behalf of Parkinson’s issues and people with Parkinson’s

(read our bios)

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