When 59-year-old Pam Wood was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in May of 2012, she immediately began researching the degenerative disorder, and what she found surprised her.
While she couldn’t slow the gradual onset of the disease, she could help offset the symptoms through intense physical therapy and training, including voice therapy with the Parkinson’s Voice Project in Richardson.
“I found out a lot of people who have Parkinson’s kind of hide from it,” she says. “They don’t realize that there’s a lot of things you can do to offset the symptoms.
“I found a physical therapy just for Parkinson’s, and it made all the difference in the world,” she continues, “because with Parkinson’s, it causes slow small movements. This physical therapy program forces you to move big and with intensity, so you’re training your brain to move bigger and think that’s normal, but the thing is I have to think about doing that with every move I make. My brain doesn’t tell me body to move like that; I have to think about it. Same with the voice training, I have to speak louder and faster than I think I need to speak.”
She also joined a support group and was shocked to see that some of the people in her group were as young as 20 or 30 years old.
“The more I learned about it, the more I realized there are a lot of young people who have it, and there’s not a lot of awareness, and we really need to find a cure,” Wood says.
Wood began working with several organizations that are striving towards finding a cure, including the Michael J. Fox Foundation, which is a grassroots community fundraising program. According to the website, “All funds raised through Team Fox go directly to MJFF to further its mission to accelerate the delivery of life-changing treatments, and ultimately a cure, to people with Parkinson’s disease.”
In May of 2013, Wood decided to host a fundraising event in November to raise money for the Michael J. Fox Foundation. With the help of her tennis team, the Samuell Grand Slammers, she has raised more than $35,000 since August, and she hopes to raise $50,000 when it’s all said and done. You can see her story and her progress on her profile.
On Nov. 23, she and her team are hosting the Western Swing Dance event at Sons of Hermann Hall, at 3414 Elm. There will be an auction, raffles and dancing to the tunes of Dallas-based swing band Shoot Low Sherriff.
“The whole tennis team is wearing crinolines — big square dance petticoats — of all different colors and cowboy boots,” Wood says. “We’re encouraging people to dress Roy Rogers or Western style. I tried to get my husband into a Roy Rogers type shirt with the fringe and embroidery on it, and it didn’t go over too well, so he’s now going as John Wayne.”
Doors open at 7 p.m. and the music starts at 8 p.m. Tickets are $25, and you can purchase them online.
