Four weeks ago Aaron and Kerries future plans changed forever.  At the age of 47 Aaron was diagnosed with Parkinson’s but they are determined to not let it define them. When they heard about the Tuscany Trek for Parkinson’s it was the perfect way to combine their love of travel and help make the future brighter for Aaron and others living with Parkinson’s.

Hear from Aaron and Kerrie about why they joined the trek and what they are looking forward to about the challenge.

We are Aaron and Kerrie Burkin and we have been married for 27 years with two beautiful children and 6 amazing grandchildren. We run a family business and our two children work with us.

4 weeks ago (yes just 4 weeks ago) our life was transformed with Aaron being diagnosed with PD at just 47 years old, a diagnosis that took us by surprise and literally changed our whole planned out future.

With the diagnosis came a few tears and lots of questions and not so many answers and that is why we decided that Parkinson’s was not going to define us, but rather we were going to help define Parkinson’s, and that is what drives us.

Our first thought was, we need to do the things now that we might not be able to do in the future…like travel. We went into a travel agency to plan an adventure…but in honesty, we had no real desire to go anywhere in particular. We left the travel agency with a couple of books and not much motivation. We are both Rotarians and we heard Clyde speak at the Rotary Conference in Lismore in May 2019, so we knew about Shake It Up and we searched it for support. There it was, the Tuscany Trek and we both knew that was it, a purpose, a reason to travel and to do some good along the way and has given Aaron a reason to get up and get moving. Aaron and I, Kerrie, have worked side by side together for the past 22 years each and every day, we share a love of all the same things especially our family, our horses and our dogs. His diagnosis was my diagnosis and we will fight this together and also fight for others along the way.

We have done many fundraising activities through our life that have benefited others, but not affected us directly, like an 80km bike ride through the Barossa Valley for Juvenile Diabetes which we did 4 years in a row, raising over $28,000.00. So we are looking forward to achieving our goal and if you noticed a trend…yes the wineries. We look forward to making new friends, seeing a part of the world we haven’t seen before and experiencing this challenge together.

We look forward to being a part of the team and excited for the experience and the dedication that the training will bring.

To Support Aaron and Kerrie visit their fundraising page.

Limited places are available for our 2nd trek. Get your information pack today.

Join us in Tuscany and let’s Shake It Up for Parkinson’s