Movers & Shakers: Try-Athlon
Our first vodcast!
On a steamy Sunday the Movers and Shakers - well, half of them - headed for the Stoop in Twickenham to check out a rather wonderful event called the Try-Athlon. The brainchild of Sport Parkinson’s co-founder, the remarkable Charlie Appleyard, this was an opportunity to try out something like 30 different sports and exercise routines, including walking football and rugby, cricket, boxing and netball and even fly-fishing.
Regular exercise, most of the experts agree, is the one thing besides medication that can ease your Parkinson’s symptoms. And don’t tell Charlie that you just don’t like sport - you’ll get a short colourful answer that you must be able to find something amongst the many activities on offer.
Mark Mardell, who falls into the sportsphobe category, found he enjoyed boxing, I found a game where I had to bash lights attached to a window when they turned blue unexpectedly compelling, and as for Nicholas “the judge” Mostyn, he put us to shame rushing between rugby, rowing, cycling and boxing like a kid in a candy store.
We took the opportunity to promote our #parkypetition which had gone through the 50,000 signature milestone on Sunday morning, halfway to the 100,000 target that triggers a Commons debate. We met some amazing campaigners who are competing to get as many signatures as possible, including Stephanie Colston whose husband Tony is doing 1,000 pressups a day with the aim of hitting 100,000 just as we reach our target.
We also decided to try something new - our first video podcast. Let us know what you think..
Sign the #ParkyPetition here.
Enjoyed the vodcast Rory. I spotted myself in the background playing walking football and it has reminded me to focus more on correcting my deteriorating posture. It occurs to me that it was rather apt for a bunch of parkies to be playing at The Stoop.