Keep Moving - Adventures with Parkinson’s disease | Alex Flynn | TEDxPatras

[Music] you hi my name's Alex I have Parkinsons I'm gonna introduce you to Parkinson's on my story Parkinson's is about rigidity it's a chronic neurologically degenerative disease that will affect my motor functions and no motor functions and take away everything that I take for granted most people take for granted like walking talking writing and sex haven't quite got to that point yet with me what it also comes with this uncertainty a bit like the uncertainty you I'm sure you'll feel when I explain to you that one in 37 of you here will get Parkinson's within your lifetime one in 20 will be under the age of 40 Frank Knight The Economist said you couldn't be certain about certainty and he had that bang on the nose I had a perfect life as far as I was concerned I had the job the money the career the wife my health in fact on my health front I was writing 50 miles a day every day I was running three half marathons a week the old marathon of the weekend and then I would do gym I mean it was perfect then in January 2008 my little finger wiggled I thought hang on a second I didn't do that so I procrastinated how many people do and after a month I decided that I would go and see my doctor and we got my arms and said you remember that fall you took off your bike in that race I said yeah he said he might might have done some nerve damage I need to refer you to a specialist well the race he was talking about was a duathlon where I was coming down their side of a hill about 40 miles an hour and I missed the science and left so a bull right and I hit three drainage pipes god knows how I got over the first two but I hit the third bag and I flew 20 meters in the air my bike went off to hide in a bush I hit that I hit the dirt road hard very hard I narrowly missed breaking my neck I separated my shoulder I broke my entire rib cage punching my lungs and pushed my collarbone through my shoulder joint it took me five months to get past that impairment amount of injury I thought I could overcome anything so I was referred to a bunch of specialists and the last one in the list was a guy Adam Brooks Hospital in Cambridge the guy opened his consulting room door and I stood up and I walked across to the his office he was watching me all the way when I got in and sat down he looked at me he said you've got Parkinson's I said you can off he took that quite well I on the other hand was not taking it well I just been told I've got a chronic neurological degenerative disease with no cure something I couldn't overcome I don't remember driving home 12th of June 2008 after many tests I received my final diagnosis that I had got Parkinson's my world fell apart [Applause] so I'm Sara blocking an uncertain future and I went into a dark place life had no meaning no numbers bereft of any kind of fun on happiness whatsoever then I came to the conclusion that I could do one of two things I could let this overwhelm me or I could get up and evolve with it so that's what I did and then led to the creation of a 10-millimeter challenge around the planet to raise 1 million for Parkinson's awareness and hope this included going off to the Sahara Desert for a romp called a marathon this summer which is 150 mile 250 kilometer footrace in 60 degree heat I went down in 2009 and promptly got lost in the Sahara with a heart infection with a liter and a half of water and all the dry food in the world I actually thought I was dead I got found by a Berber coming back in 2010 I completed it reaching five hundred and twenty eighth position out of over 1100 competitors so do you do when you've run a couple of hundred marathons and you've decided to run across the Sahara you run to roam around from London to Dover Bruges Ghent Brussels to Paris go a hundred miles south of Paris and I've been running for four hundred miles with a stress fracture right tibia every right foot for hitting the road was like a piece of wood getting smashed into my shin my tendons had got crunchy some white crews say that you better ride a bike so I rode the heaviest mountain bike across the world the Alps into Rome and I did walk the coldest innocent around Italy 10 or 10 kilometers uphill with the busted leg to meet this guy and he came out like a rockstar and I have to say hell hath no fury like a nun you get in the way of her in the pontiff you get knocked for six I then decided to set my sights on America covering a distance of five thousand two hundred miles this was the vote of my support crew on the morning of the commencement of the Obey endeavour stupid diocese Tituba does I wrote to man Winnie climb the second highest mountain in America ran too bad water 130 miles across Death Valley wrote across the entire United States to New York ran down Broadway to finish now the New York Police Department said I would be able to get into the Manhattan river the river off that Manhattan Island the u.s. Coast Guard said they withhold shipping the US Park Service said you didn't give us enough notice and if you do that we'll treat you as a terrorist they know me so well and then went off to the Amazon I ran a hundred 200 kilometers of the Amazon jungle I lost from 82 kilos down to 64 kilos in less than a week I ran across the Colorado Rockies in inclement weather to get the biggest medal you could kill a wild buffalo with if you flung it hard enough I did that in the Dolomites in eight weeks and within 14 months of 2012 to 2013 I covered 6,000 kilometers on foot that's enough to run from London to Washington DC on the 24th of January 2014 I completed my ten million meter challenge I still yet to race that million in 2017 I went off to the Coons land trail in Switzerland in -29° to do an unsupported traverse of the Coons line Kings trail five kilometers into 200 sorry 450 kilometer trek I slip over Ripper tendon in my right ankle I careful take my right ankle pulling a hundred and thirty five pound pulk and 10k backpack I pulled it over two mountain passes and three frozen lakes for another 25 miles before well hypothermia set in and I had to call it a day 2018 so when we go out to Fiji to do the Lost Islands ultra we had two cyclones that came in and wiped everything out and we were struggling through mud up to our waists in occasionally that was a road and that was a ward formerly a small stream I finished but didn't complete the course in a hundred 100 percent as I got heat stroke on the first day we carried on lastly in 2018 I did the primal quest pursuit race 240 miles across bear-infested British Columbian wilderness it was immense including glass ears and whitewater rafting and that's the face of a man who put 20 days training into it managed to turn four days and five hours and suffering but bulging discs into minor spine at the same time made it equally difficult my coping mechanism fell all the uncertainty the Parkinson's gives is to throw risk at it the idea of seizing opportunity to keep moving adaption is key we hate as human beings we hate adoption we hate having to change our minds we like things certain but that's very difficult when disease in front of you makes every day unique the only constants that I have with the disease is that it's there in the morning when I wake up and it's the last thing that says good night to me for my survival and how I cope with my life I have to embrace perpetual change but Parkinson's can be my worst enemy it is my worst enemy it's taken my job my family it even left me homeless your one point not to mention the effects of the medication the loss slow loss of motor control and non motor control and the fact that I'm nervous at the moment and I'm shaking like a leaf but it doesn't stop me from living my life to the best that I can possibly be [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] he pull with without Parkinson's will never understand people that do there's an unknown assumption that they rely on that we've got to be convolved these assumptions can be at least inconvenient and a worse destructive the more understanding needs to be given to those people that do have Parkinson's for example Parkinson's is an old person's disease Parkinson's doesn't discriminate Parkinson's takes on anybody in every age and the youngest person ever diagnosed with Parkinson's disease was a two year old boy I just think about that two years old I've had it for 12 years imagine that kid going to school and how cool other children can be and the same thing happens when you go for a job your arms shaking around like crazy and I'm putting that on at the moment because it just doesn't shake that much but you're nervous and the look in the guy's eyes is what's wrong with this guy does you have a drink problem does he have a drug problem what's wrong with this guy and you say all that you've noticed my Parkinson's well it doesn't stop me from reaching my objectives or fulfilling my obligations I hope that's not a problem oh no it's not a problem is to reply we're an equal opportunities employer and you never hear back so uncertainty provides people with Parkinson's with worries they worry about their job long-term earnings their home their marriage but it's not all disappointment there is hope there are fantastic organizations pharmaceuticals biotechs charities putting my money where their mouth is and making it into creating new treatments in years not decades for example Parkinson's UK and Parkinson's Foundation in America have created a virtual biotech to create speedy new treatments when you've got Parkinson's time is not your friend so can Parkinson's be my friend Parkinson's and uncertainty can be my friends they've led to the adventures I've had in the man I am today I mean I'm the best cocktail shaker in town [Applause] [Applause] we thought it's lovely because I can't stop patting them but seriously Parkinson's has led to me being more creative of my life let me seizing every opportunity in order to move forward to keep moving in a way of balancing my world with now you're not just my adventures but why personal development to create a future everybody has a different journey with Parkinson's speaking to people within the Parkinson's community we all have uncertainty that's for certain the presumptions and assumptions need to change if we're ever going to move forward or in society as people with Parkinson's who are able to contribute and benefit from society as well so maybe we should just stop shying away from uncertainty and use it to create certainty and hopefully we can make change happen my name is Alex thank you for listening you [Music]

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 27,200

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Health, Adventure, Disease, Life, Sports

Id: l5yVSsWnHhA

Length: 17min 18sec (1038 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 10 2020