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It’s easy to talk the talk for disease awareness, but now you can walk the walk — literally!
On April 16th, the Parkinson’s Association of San Diego (PASD) and the Parkinson’s Unity Walk (PUW) will be hosting two different walks on either side of the country. The goals of each walk are the same: to raise awareness and funding for Parkinson’s, a disease that affects approximately one million people in the United States. 23andMe shares similar goals and is proud to be participating in both events to promote our Parkinson’s research community.
In San Diego, the PASD is holding a 5K “Walk and Fun Run” at Liberty Park in Point Loma. They anticipate 2,000 walkers this year, 500 of which have Parkinson’s disease (PD). This year’s walk will also feature a new program called “Paws for Parkinson’s” to highlight the importance of service dogs in the lives of people with Parkinson’s disease. For more information about this walk, visit the walk website.
Across the country on the East Coast, the Parkinson’s Unity Walk will be held in New York City’s Central Park. This event, now in its 16th year, is coordinated between seven different Parkinson’s organizations. Last year, the Unity Walk drew approximately 10,000 people and raised $1.5 million for PD research! For more information about the Unity Walk, visit their website.
23andMe will be hosting booths at both walks to give out bookmarks and other goodies, to discuss our service and research efforts, and to enroll people with PD into our Parkinson’s research community. 23andMe testing kits will be available on-site, but if you’re not quite ready to get or use a kit, there will also be discount cards you can take home to apply towards a kit online.
Whether you’re already a participant in our Parkinson’s community or not, we’d love to see you at one of the walks! You can tell us your story (we’ll be taking some video and photos), take home some free stuff, learn more about what we do, or just stop by to show your support.
To get a flavor of what these walks and 23andMe’s research efforts are all about, check out this video on the Unity Walk website (23andMe featured starting at minute 3:50).
April is Parkinson’s Disease Awareness Month! Learn more about this disease and how you can get involved.