Kathleen Kennedy (74) from Ballincar is Chairperson of the North West branch of the Parkinson’s Association of Ireland and has been battling the disease since 2018. Kevin Fitzsimons (62) from Cairns Road, who is also a member of the branch, received his diagnosis in 2020. They are just two of the estimated 12,000 people living with the condition in Ireland and amongst 200 in Sligo. Famous heavyweight boxer, the late Muhammad Ali had Parkinson’s while singer Linda Ronstadt, actor Michael Fox and TV presenter, Jeremy Paxman are other famous people battling the disease. Singer/songwriter Shay Healy who passed away in 2021, aged 78, also had Parkinson’s. Receiving a diagnosis came as a terrible shock to both Kathleen and Kevin. They tell their stories in the hope that it will give hope to other sufferers and their families. They are doing it with the help of their families and friends which is a great source of comfort and solace to them as they have a solid base of practical support. The softly spoken Kathleen was born in a small town in Northamptonshire and came to Sligo in 1986 when her husband Des Kennedy from Dun Laoghaire got a job as manager with Hibernian Insurance in Sligo. “My first impression of Sligo is that it is a very beautiful place, and I was pleased to move out of Dublin. I grew up in a small town in England, so Sligo suited me better than Dublin. The couple had married in 1974. She and her husband have four children, a daughter Catherine Regan who has three children and sons, Stephen, Andrew and Robert. Kathleen was formerly a teacher of History and French and one of her biggest regrets is that she does not have the concentration to read anymore. On the plus side, the mobile phone and the web with its short snappy stories is an ideal way for Kathleen to keep up with what’s happening. But Kathleen has never been afraid of new challenges as when her children became teenagers she went back to college when she was 40 to study accountancy and she worked as a bookkeeper in Sligo. These days, she researches family history to help keep her brain active. Kathleen first noticed that things were not as they should be around eight years ago. “I noticed that my brain was different and that I was losing my powers of concentration. “So, I was sent for tests, and everything seemed to be normal, and I was relieved. And then I was out walking at the Sligo Spring Walking Festival and about a mile from the end of the walk on this particular day, suddenly my legs did not want to move. “I had to mentally tell myself for the last mile and then this kept on happening and I went to the doctor after about two months, and he sent me to a neurologist who told me I had Parkinson’s. “I had myself convinced I had Motor Neuron Disease, so I was quite relieved in a way. I thought it was MND because the symptoms seem to fit. “People have different symptoms and one of the main symptoms is a tremor which I don’t actually have. My main symptoms are mainly stiffness, and my muscles are not doing what they are told a lot of the time. “And everything is very slow to do as well, and I am very stiff.” Owing to her condition, Kathleen needs help around the house. “I can’t do any proper cleaning anymore and I am losing my independence and Des puts my socks on in the morning. “I used to read non stop anything and everything, but now I play a lot of bridge. “I am able to concentrate on it with varying degrees of success, depending on how I am feeling on the day. So far, I have been relatively unscathed by my Parkinson’s. “It is progressive and there is no cure for it, and you end up not being able to do anything at all.” But despite her major challenges Kathleen says she is as “happy as ever I was, and I am enjoying my life as much as I ever did.” “It’s different and I can’t do everything I used to, but I am still just as happy as I was.” Her family are a great support and “they are all worried for me far more than I am.” Kathleen is remarkably positive and says she enjoys bridge and socialising “going out for coffee and meeting my friends”. “I enjoy doing family history research and my family’s name is Turpin like the highwayman and there was also a Randolph Turpin who was a British boxer in the 1950s, but we are not related.” And Kathleen discovered there are many in Sligo with the condition. “In Ballincar alone there are five people including myself who have Parkinson’s and that is just a small area and I don’t know the exact number in Sligo as not all are in the Association. “The Association is a great help and very supportive and you meet people who also have the condition which is a great help also. And we have exercise classes organised with Yoga as well. We are now starting to meet in Molloway House on The Mall where they have a supporters’ address for people with mobility issues.” The condition also affects Kathleen’s voice and her writing has become “illegible”. “I used to love to write, and I can still type with two fingers on the laptop.” Her thoughts on the disease are straightforward. “I just feel that at a certain age you are always going to end up with something and I was diagnosed when I was 69 and at least you have a relatively long time and you have a long time before you are going to be really bad with it as well. “And exercise is really important to keep going as long as you can and to be as mobile as long as you can as well. “It helps too to talk about it. When I was in the process of being diagnosed, I did not look up anything about the disease. “The doctor put me on tablets at the start and I felt like I was jet-propelled. I suddenly went from being the slowest walker in my group to being the fastest. “We were on a walking group that went from Porto to the Spanish border and the people on the group were asking me what I was on and saying they would like to have whatever it is. “The tablet is called Sinemet, and it replaces the Dopamine in the brain that is lost when you are diagnosed”. Kevin explained:“In Parkinson’s you lose your brain cells that are producing Dopamine and they are not able to produce it anymore. “Sinemet is a replacement for Dopamine and most people when they get their diagnosis and are on Sinemet, it gives them a huge boost. But despite her difficulties, Kathleen continues to lead a very full life. “I find the day flies past and I don’t have time to do everything and apparently that is because everything is much slower to do. “The day is easily filled.I don’t read newspapers, but I spend a lot of time on my mobile phone, and I think I am worse than my grandchildren. I keep up with the news on the phone. “There are other worse conditions that you could be diagnosed with, and it takes a long time before you get really bad ten years or more. “Some people are diagnosed very young.” Kevin reveals he knew someone who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s at 19 and he still went on to become a professional golfer. He added: “There is no known cause or cure. The general medication for Parkinson’s has not changed since the 1960s. But more and more is known about the disease and the symptoms. There are about 50 different symptoms of Parkinson’s and if you talk to people with Parkinson’s, it’s like talking to people who are on a bus journey. “They will all give you a version of a story, there are commonalities between the stories but none of the stories will be exactly the same. “It is just that everybody gets a different view of it.” Kevin is a native of Athlone, and a big Sligo Rovers fan, and has been in Sligo for 26 years having worked in the National Irish Bank in Stephen Street. “I was diagnosed in November 2020 just after the second Lockdown. I kind of figured it out myself, before I got diagnosed. No more than