Cure Parkinson’s Fundraisers of the Year 2025!
Each year Cure Parkinson’s celebrates a fundraiser who has gone above and beyond to support our vital research. To keep up with the charity’s growing size and give us the chance to celebrate more of the challenges you – our incredible supporters – have taken on, we’ve decided to award three winners for 2025!
Fundraiser of the Year: Ed FitzGerald
Ed was diagnosed with young onset Parkinson’s when he was 48 after his wife, Abby, noticed his arm wouldn’t swing when he ran. Staying active has helped Ed manage his symptoms, so in 2025 he decided to fulfil a dream of running the TCS London Marathon whilst raising funds and awareness for us.
Ed raised a phenomenal £22,575 with his London Marathon challenge and has continued to raise funds and awareness for us since, including by taking part in our 20km Walk To Cure Parkinson’s event. Speaking of his time fundraising, Ed said:
I was bowled over by the generosity of family, friends and colleagues, as well as a good number of people I didn’t know. It really brought out the best in humanity and was very humbling.”
Young Fundraiser of the Year: Michael Wang
Over the Christmas holidays teenage supporter Michael chose to fundraise for us in memory of his grandfather, who lived with Parkinson’s.
Michael took on two challenges to raise over £3,000 in support of our research; a 71km running challenge over 3 days, as well as organising a charity concert.
Michael ran 71km to represent every year of his grandfather’s life. To stay motivated, he ran to places he loved to visit with his grandfather, including their favourite sushi restaurant and mountain trails near the family home in Vancouver, Canada. Michael said:
I chose to support Cure Parkinson’s because my grandfather lived with the disease and I saw how it slowly started affecting his daily life. I wanted to help raise awareness and support research that could help improve the lives of those living with Parkinson’s in the future.”
Fundraising Team of the Year: the Franck family
When Sally was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2020 her consultant told her a good way to manage her symptoms was to “keep moving”. Since then she has truly taken those words to heart by embarking on numerous charity walking challenges, and in 2025 she set off on Wainwright’s Coast to Coast with her husband. Supported by family and friends en route, together they raised over £15,500 to be split equally between Cure Parkinson’s and Parkinson’s UK.
Shortly after completing the Coast to Coast, the family supported Cure Parkinson’s Walk To Cure Parkinson’s fundraising campaign, helping to promote the challenge within their community and recording video messages of encouragement for the charity’s social media channels. More recently, Sally and sons – Callum and Jamie – have taken the family fundraising helm by running the 2026 TCS London Marathon for Cure Parkinson’s and Parkinson’s UK respectively. Of her and her family’s commitment to raising funds and awareness, Sally said:
I want a cure for us all, or at least a way of slowing symptoms. It is Cure Parkinson’s focused attention on finding a cure which has motivated us to fundraise for them.”
We are extremely grateful to all of our incredible fundraisers, and would like to say an extra big thank you to Ed, Michael and the Franck family!
If you know a Cure Parkinson’s supporter who has gone the extra mile for us in 2026, make sure to nominate them for our Fundraiser of the Year awards! In 2026 we will have four categories – Fundraiser of the Year, Young Fundraiser of the Year, Fundraising Team of the Year, and Corporate Fundraiser of the Year – so if you know of any fundraising heroes, whether an individual, family or community group, company or organisation, make sure to nomination them for this annual award.
