I have noticed recently that newspapers, when reporting the death of a well-known person who suffered from PD, often draw attention to this fact. Sometimes they even seem to be implying that the person died of PD, either directly or as a result of complications associated with another complaint. For example, when Bob Hoskins died at the end of April, The Guardian’s first report included these words: ‘His agent said that he died on Tuesday, surrounded by his family, suffering from pneumonia. He retired in 2012 following a diagnosis with Parkinson's disease in the autumn of 2011.
Earlier in the same month, when Margo MacDonald the Scottish politician died, The Guardian wrote: ‘Margo MacDonald… died on Friday aged 70 after a long, public struggle with Parkinson’s disease. In later life, after her Parkinson’s became more severe, MacDonald had championed the case for assisted suicide and was working on her latest attempt to put an assisted suicide bill up in the Scottish parliament.
For those of us with PD these reports can be disturbing. Until now I’ve never really worried unduly about those persistent viruses it is difficult to shake off and nor have I ever really thought of myself as suffering from a ‘terminal illness’ that might lead to me wanting to take my own life. When I asked my neurologist about what the future held for me he replied that unfortunately he didn’t have a crystal ball. Fair enough, I know PD affects different people in different ways, but the uncertainty is becoming unsettling.
Yann, some journalists don't even imply that the person has died from Parkinsons, they say that they HAVE died FROM it!!!
I took this up via e mail with a journalist that writes in the Daily Wail, Hardcastle, and was not even given the courtesy of a reply.
Perhaps PUK could give them some REAL information so as not to scare newly diagnosed PWP
I just wish that these uninformed people would consider what distress they may cause, and do some research, so that they know what they are talking about, before they write such scaremongering rubbish.
You don't die from it, you die with it, albeit it sometime causes complications which you do die from, as in any other progessive disease.
Bumping this thread as I feel it is very important that PUK take on the media with respect to the often inaccurate reporting of Parkinsons.
There are so many articles about new cures, miracle cures etc. that are also pie in the sky. I have been reading such articles for years and we are nowhere nearer a cure than we were when they first appeared.
Well meaning friends contact me regularly about what they have read in the press, heard on TV news etc. about a new development, and a cure BUT,I wish.....................
Come on, PUK, scupper these media reports and challenge them.
Has anyone seen this months June 2014 edition of Essentials pages 61 to 62 about '' Successful Couple where the husband was dx with Parkinson's''. Is this another story that has been put together to put fear up new Parkinson sufferers or just to sensationalise the condition. It's ok for for these celebrities to use the press. But there are several points about Parkinson's that you can not just generalise. How us normal mortals suppose to cope who do not use the press.
it would be good to find out if this article was checked by PUK as it was used to publicise Symfunny. With it being in London I wonder how the majority of Parkinson suffers will get a chance to hear this event.
I saw a man in NTGH a few weeks ago who was very severely affected by PD, he had all the typical symptoms short little shuffling steps ,stooped posture,expressionless face It was very sad,I learned later that he was two years younger than me, and It made me think of the road ahead, the constant battle is wearying but I have no choice I must fight or die , I wont allow it to defeat me, though sometimes it gains the upper hand and hell arrives with it but I have so far continued to stay one step ahead, when I pick up the paper and read the fantasy press talking about miracle cures I think , when I have the cure or means to a cure in my hand and have had six months clear of any symptoms, then and only then will I believe the headlines, I do believe they will find a cure and I hope it is soon as I am powering through my sixties at a dizzying rate , is it just me but does it feel as if time is speeding up ,Im off now Night All
