This year’s Pause 4 Parkinson’s campaign included so many fantastic community fundraisers, and we loved seeing familiar faces fundraise again for Parkinson’s. That included colleagues Louise and Zach and their Paws 4 Parkinson’s fundraising efforts, which were a huge success.
Zach and his dogs Bruno and Irish certainly burnt up the pavements walking 150km to raise funds, while Louise, along with her dog Sheba, walked a huge 90km in the month of April, together raising over $5,000! They also held events for their workplace across the country.
We spoke with Louise about her involvement with this year’s Pause 4 Parkinson’s and her advice for other’s wanting to make a difference for Parkinson’s.
Hi Louise! Can you tell us about your Pause 4 Parkinson’s fundraising efforts for this year?
This year Zach and I decided to team up again. We work at different sites in different states so we see so many people and we thought we could do well again with fundraising.
We both love our dog walking so we took the same challenge to walk our dogs mine (Sheba) and Zach’s (Bruno and Irish) as part of Paws for Parkinson’s.
But we decided to add a bit more and not just ask people to support our dog walking efforts but to have a few events too. Between us we arranged BBQs at our work sites in WA and NSW, and a big pancake event in WA too. We found well fed people tend to give generously!
What was the highlight of this year’s fundraising for you?
I must say our colleagues are very generous! We had so much support and I had a lot of personal encouragement given to me regarding my PD too. Again, we have awesome colleagues.
Why did you choose to raise funds for Shake It Up Australia?
Since my diagnosis in 2020 I have followed the work of Shake It Up Australia after first discovering the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. There is so much research generated it gives me hope for a cure. Zach is an awesome colleague and just said he would like to join in and help.
What do you wish people understood more about Parkinson’s disease?
That PD is different for everyone, and different every day for each person. PD is often represented by tremor but not everyone is majorly impacted that way. But that doesn’t mean they have “mild” PD.
What words of advice do you have for others hoping to make a difference for Parkinson’s?
Stay positive, there are a lot of people out there willing and able to help. Give it a go and you might surprise yourself – I did!
Shake It Up supporter Louise Capper says there's nothing to lose by giving fundraising a go if you want to make a difference - there are so many people out there willing and able to get involved! Click To Tweet
