Isa Adams receives the Sir Zelman Cowen Award
Isa Adams, long-time friend of Rotary, and wife of member Alan, has this week been presented with the Sir Zelman Cowen award from Fight Parkinson's at their AGM for outstanding service to the Parkinson's community. Since the first Parkinson's Walk in the Park in 2017 Isa has helped raise $160,000.
On accepting her award Isa said ..
"Thank you for the Award. I feel very honoured to receive it. I was diagnosed with Parkinson's 15 years ago. After a few years of keeping it mostly to myself, my husband Alan and I decided it was time for me to start participating in the various Fundraisers for Fight Parkinson's and help the Parkinson's community. Alan and my two boys set up a fundraising page for my first Walk in the Park event, and within a few hours we saw the amount quickly climb. There was so much excitement, kindness, and most of all, generosity. I knew I needed to keep doing this.
Today I am celebrating the wonderful support from Fight Parkinson's and their amazing team as well as all my family and friends who were so generous over the years.
I know I am not telling you anything new when I say that today there is no cure and each day presents itself with new and extremely difficult challenges. We need to find a cure for this dreadful disease. It just creeps up on you and changes your life forever.
So what did I do? I constantly told myself to keep moving as the option of lying on the bed is much easier but the outcome would have been much worse. I have had 15 years of regular daily exercise physiology and dance exercise sessions which I believe slowed the progression. I especially love dance exercises, these have been wonderful for my brain, my body, and my coordination.
I was very aware that not everybody had access to or was able to afford these dance classes so I was determined that together with Emma (from Fight Parkinson's) we could create parkindance. Emma and Professor Megg Morris were amazing in creating a dance program backed by scientific research for the broader Parkinson's community. These weekly classes are something people can look forward to, where they can have fun and benefit from the exercises. I consider myself a very lucky person that I can try to help Fight Parkinson's.
I have made wonderful friends with others in the Parkinson's community, we support each other and we support the cause.
My life is so different than how I imagined it would have been. I feel blessed to have the opportunity to make a difference and to try to help others."