New Year, New Challenge

Happy New Year from our fundraising team!

We can’t believe it’s already nearing the end of January 2022!

We were blown away by the efforts and achievements of the thousands of you who took on a virtual or in-person challenge in 2021. In an exceptionally tough year for everyone, and especially for those affected by Parkinson’s, it was truly inspiring and heartwarming to see so many of you stepping up to raise awareness and funds for a cure. From all of us here at Cure Parkinson’s, thank you.

You gave us so many reasons to cheer throughout the year, and we wanted to share some highlights from a jam-packed 12 months of fundraising:

• In January during the winter lockdown, 800 of you took to your turbo trainer bikes at home and joined an epic celebrity chase on Zwift, raising over £20,000 for research.
• Jane Birkin’s one-woman 555km ‘try’athlon challenge went global, raising over £8,000 for Cure Parkinson’s in May.
• Team 144, from Bromsgrove, were the first to smash our brand new £1,000 Challenge, completing the 25-mile long, locally iconic 144 bus route on foot. 
• In September, the Big Splash for Parkinson’s: Positively Parkinson’s team swam the 5km distance across the Solent and raised close to £50,000 – wow!
• On Sunday 3 October, 38 Cure Parkinson’s supporters, many of whom had waited two years to run the iconic route, came together to take part in the Virgin Money London Marathon and raised an incredible £115,000.
• We looked on in awe from afar as supporter Arabella Slinger, from London, became the first British woman to ski Amundsen’s route to the South Pole!

And we put the funds you raised to good use. In 2021 we announced significant funding, focusing on three key areas:

• Preclinical work ensuring a robust pipeline of relevant drugs to progress into clinical trials
• Infrastructure support to enable the smooth running of those clinical trials
• Further clinical trials of drugs with the potential to slow, stop or reverse Parkinson’s.

But our work is far from finished

A cure for Parkinson’s is needed now more than ever before, and we can’t do it without you.

If you’re thinking of signing up for your first challenge, or considering your next, there are lots of challenges to choose from – we can even help you develop your own ideas to raise funds for research. Maybe you’ll finally tick something off your bucket list this year!

Whatever you do in 2022, we’ll be here to help every step of the way.

Together we will find a cure for Parkinson’s.

Leanne, Rachel & Elizabeth