Don’t feel blue.. we’re in this together.
“I do not want to attend a conference full of old shaky people” is what I would have said to anyone who thought that meeting others ‘just like me’ after just 2 years with the disease (back in 2013- the 3rd World Parkinson Congress) in Montreal, Canada — would be ‘good for me’ — WTF!!
That was my general attitude toward any suggestions of helping myself come to terms with my Parkinson’s diagnosis in 2011 at the age of just 29. I knew best and that was that — I was just trying to keep my job as a teacher and to be a husband to my wife (Jane) and a father to Evelyn and George (aged 2 and George only months old in 2013).
But the work got harder and my life — more demanding than ever. I was trying to stay afloat, head above water — still determined to swim in the fast lane with all the others. But that was the problem.. It wasn’t the condition itself — that was well and truly sat at the table.. Wearing my clothes, sleeping next to my wife and driving my kids to school. Parkinson’s was everywhere.
Despite my friends and family..I was living alone with Parkinson’s. I was ‘doing it’ wrong. But then, one day, my world changed.. I reached out, made contact on Twitter and began friendships with others — the global community had been there all along and it was a complete revelation and game changer.
I wasn’t alone. I didn’t have to live like I was counting down my remaining years.. I began counting upward, putting the years behind me and celebrating each year with Parkinson’s. Yes, I wasn’t swimming with the same people as I once did. The world I once knew had changed but we can defy the odds and live our lives, still.
In 2016, I attended my first WPC in Portland — this changed my life and shifted my perspective of what ‘community’ really means. I also got to meet Arlon Bennett — a musician. This encounter really gave me the strength and belief that music is magical in the context of Parkinson’s. Music heals, helps and takes me away from the physical limitations of Parkinson’s — it is everything to me in my life.
So to mark my decade and to celebrate the fact I will see you all in about 10 months from now is something special to look forward to — so I wrote this song..
Let us sing it together! Vive la vida! Ser glorioso!
I will see you all, my old friends and the new — in Barcelona 2023.
No friend like another and I need you x
GLORIOUS
Written and performed by
DAVID SANGSTER (18.10.2022)
Featuring: Roy ‘The Shed Project’ Fletcher & Evelyn Sangster
Special thanks to Evelyn Sangster (Camera) & Rob Lowe (Gaffer)
