Parkinsons Equip

Parkinson's Equip 

http://parkinsonsequip.org.uk

An Introduction to Parkinson's Equip /Meeting Ray and Ghislaine 

The new brief we were given was my first live project where I would be working with a charity. The brief was to highlight and create awareness of a charity called Parkinson's Equip. Its a charity that focuses on giving people with Parkinson's support and improving their quality of life, particularly through sport or art. As soon as this brief was an option I decided to pick it, its a very emotive subject and something that effects a lot of people, but I felt like it was something that I feel strongly about and wanted to try and make a positive difference for people who suffer from the condition. I also found the link with art and creativity quite interesting.

In the afternoon we as a group were able to meet Ray Wegrzyn, who is affected with condition and Ghisliane Howard, who is a painter- producing work about her mother, who has Parkinson's. Both of them run and help raise funds for the charity Parkinson's equip. They explained what the charity was about and what Parkinson's is. It made me quite emotional as a person to learn about the effects it has on people  and people who are close to them. I was quite inspired by what Parkinson's equip were trying to do in terms of  help and support. 

I was inspired by Ray someone who had the disease. What got me was he was such a nice bloke that wasn't old ( who you usually associate age with parkinson's`)  and lived a normal life. Some of the facts and figures about it really showed me how much this is having an effect not only on the people affected, but also people around them, the societies we live in and much more. 

Ray is inspirational to me how he used creativity to come up with some beautiful poems for the book "Chapter and Illuminating versus". Despite losing lots of things like movement and speech, he came up with these poems that reflect the emotions of him and the illness.