We* did it! Parky Petition hits 100K
*That includes you if you signed or helped out..
At precisely 7.09 pm on Wednesday evening the running total on the petitions website clicked over from 99,999 to 100,000 and we had done it. By collecting that six figure mountain of signatures we have won the right to a debate about Parkinson’s and the Parky Charter, our manifesto for change.
We are both delighted and somewhat amazed that we have achieved this unlikely feat almost two months before the September 10th deadline. When the petition was launched back in the Spring we put on a brave face but I think we all felt it was a pretty tall order. After all, our previous ‘home-made’ petition supporting the Parky Charter which we took to 10 Downing Street in 2024 had garnered just 20,000 signatures and that had proved quite a slog.
A couple of months in, things were proceeding slowly and we decided to take action. We hatched a plan to go to Brighton in May half-term week and waylay good humoured crowds heading to the beach. Sadly, it was one of the rare rainy days of this sunbaked year and the enthusiastic clutch of campaigners from local Parkinson’s groups had to resort to ambushing victims in bus-shelters or pubs.
Still, it was a turning point because it made us appreciate what local groups could achieve even under difficult circumstances and it also taught us how easy it was to show a young person a QR code and get them signed up.
We began to get a bit more organised, not least because we met at the Sport Parkinson’s Try-Athlon event a man called Mark, a former marketing director of The Economist, who offered to help us. What Mark gave us in his quiet, but effective way was a strategy for reaching 100,000, with a consistent hashtag #parkypetition100K and a schedule of activities, from seeking endorsements from celebrities and influential medics to engaging with local politicians and news organisations.
He was clear that we must plan to meet the 100,000 target with time to spare, and set us stretching goals. July was to be the month where we built momentum, aiming to get above 70,000 signatures by the beginning of August.
Of course, it did not work out like that. We soared past 70,000 late on July 4th during the extraordinary few days when our petition went viral and we added 20,000 signatures between Thursday morning and Saturday evening. I wrote last week about the reasons behind that surge, with the best bet being that a TikTok video by Liz Houghton set the ball rolling.
But it seems to me that we also relied on a few local heroes, nearly all women, to get us through the quiet weeks at the start and keep the momentum going even as the July surge began to fade. So thank you to all of you who have devoted so many of your waking hours to explaining the Parky Charter to the queues at Wimbledon and Lord’s, or to people who have sat next to you on a bus or in the pub.
Thanks too to the friend who, as I left her lunchtime party at the weekend, asked me to send her from my phone one of our leaflets. She printed it out, stuck it to. the inside of her front door and promised me that nobody would be allowed to leave without signing the petition.
But this is not the end of the journey - we are going to carry on collecting signatures right up until the deadline on September 10th. We may then have to wait a while for the debate but even after that the campaign goes on. I spoke today to a woman who lives in a very rural part of the UK. She had spoken to her GP about some worrying symptoms that could have been Parkinson’s.
He had warned her that getting an appointment with an NHS neurologist would take an age and had inquired gently whether she had the wherewithal to take the private medicine route. She and her husband had decided this was the only way forward and she was swiftly diagnosed with young onset Parkinson’s.
More neurologists is the number one demand in our Parky Charter but we don’t kid ourselves that it will happen in a hurry or without constant pressure from us. The Parkinson’s community has begun to get used to the novelty of having its voice heard and is not going to retreat back into silence.
I watched it tick over last night too. Everyone has done brilliantly!
Further to your story, a friend (we’re well rural)was showing worryingly increasing symptoms. He was trying to ignore it but a couple of months ago went to his GP and was told the wait here is 44 weeks for an NHS neurologist appointment. 🙄 So he stumped up and got a swift private appointment, a Parkinson’s diagnosis, and started treatment.
No one needs this, but it’s especially unhelpful because his wife has Parkinson’s, so he’s positioned himself with an essential role in the house and in giving support. Up to now he’s deployed strength, in all senses, and energy and life was carrying on. Hence some denial. Facing it was brave. Those of us with close Parkys know too much.
The good news is that he’s feeling a fair bit better with medication. But if he’d had to wait the best part of a year for diagnosis and drugs they’d have been in a pickle.
More power to you. Elbows out.
Such an incredible achievement. I am a consultant geriatrician and specialist in Parkinson’s disease and finding it difficult to make the powers that be aware of the importantance of early diagnosis and regular follow up for patients and not on a 9 monthly or yearly basis.