ABBEY FitzGerald first became concerned about her husband Ed after she noticed his arm had stopped swinging while running.
Little did she know, she had actually just spotted a symptom of his undiagnosed Parkinson’s.
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“To be honest, I didn’t think too much about it,” the 49-year-old success officer at Greenwich University, said.
“Certainly the idea of Parkinson’s never entered my head for a second.”
The couple had always enjoyed running together, but in the summer of 2018, Abby pointed out that something was wrong with his arm.
“My wife kept telling me, ‘make sure you swing your arm,’ Ed FitzGerald, 50, recalled.
“I thought it might be something to do with a trapped nerve, but I didn’t think much of it,” the dad added.
Ed, a marketing director at RPC, from Bromley, south London, had previously noticed a lack of mobility in his arm when he was on holiday – but didn’t think anything of it.
He said: “One year, we were on holiday in Lanzarote, and I noticed a lack of mobility in my arm, but at the time I didn’t make the connection.
“I also had extreme fatigue for a long time, but I thought I was just knackered from working too much.”
By October 2023, after Ed had been struggling to type with his left hand, he decided to see a GP.
That December, following scans, Ed received life-changing news.
He said: “The doctor said something like, ‘how do you want the bad news?’ and told me I either had a stroke or have Parkinson’s – but said it was more likely to be Parkinson’s.”
Finding out that Ed had Parkinson’s came as a “huge shock”, to the couple Abbey said.
“I wrongly assumed that it was a disease that only affected older people,” she said.
Parkinson’s is a progressive neurological condition, meaning that it causes problems in the brain and gets worse over time.
It affects around 153,000 people in the UK.
And although typically it occurs in older people, younger people as young as 20 can also be affected.
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It leads to symptoms like stiffness and freezing can limit certain actions, especially when you’re on your feet.
“[Ed] always been such an active person, and the idea that he might not be able to do the things he loves to do was unbearable,” Abbey added.
Determined to turn his diagnosis into something positive, Ed signed up for the London Marathon to raise money for Cure Parkinson’s late last year.
He said: “I wanted to give something back and do something positive.
“I knew that I could wallow in a pit of despair or make something good out of it.”
Ed chose to run for Cure Parkinson’s after receiving support from the charity early in his diagnosis.
He said: “I was lucky very early in my diagnosis to be put in touch with the chief executive of Cure Parkinson’s, Helen Matthews, who no doubt is exceedingly busy but still found time to give me some advice.
“The charity has been very good to me, and I wanted to give back to them.”
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Since launching his fundraiser in August 2024, Ed has raised over £12,500.
He said: “I have been really humbled that people have dug so deep to help a cause that’s very personal to me.
“People are donating who I haven’t seen for years, people I have never met, friends of friends, colleagues-people from all parts of my life. It’s been really heart-warming.”
The marathon holds personal significance for Ed after his wife ran it in 2010.
He said: “Part of the reason the London Marathon was right for me was because my wife ran it in support of a childhood leukaemia charity after my son was diagnosed with leukaemia at six-months-old.
What is Parkinson’s disease?
PARKINSON’S is a progressive neurological condition.
This means that it causes problems in the brain and gets worse over time.
People with Parkinson’s don’t have enough of the chemical dopamine in their brain because some of the nerve cells that make it have stopped working.
Around 145,000 people live with Parkinson’s in the UK.
It’s the fastest growing neurological condition in the world.
Symptoms start to appear when the brain can’t make enough dopamine to control movement properly.
This usually happens around the age of 50, but some people might see the first signs in their 40s.
There are over 40 symptoms, but the three main ones are:
- A tremor (shaking)
- Slowness of movement
- Rigidity (muscle stiffness)
There are several different treatments, therapies and support available to help manage the condition.
Source: Parkinson’s UK
“There’s a strange circularity to me running this marathon in that sense.”
Since his diagnosis, Ed’s has been forced to make changes to his daily routine.
He said: “I now have to work from home a lot and sometimes have to take a 30-minute nap in the middle of the day because I’m so exhausted.
“At first, I was worried about whether I’d be able to keep working with Parkinson’s, but I’ve been really supported by my colleagues at work.”
‘Incredibly proud’
Despite his exhaustion, Ed’s diagnosis motivated him to incorporate even more exercise into his daily routine.
He said: “The irony is that now I probably do more exercise than I did before.
“I do a greater variety of sports now.
“I even took up non-combat boxing because the research suggests the more active you remain, the slower the progression of symptoms is likely to be.”
Abby added: “He’s tackled this challenge as he approaches everything in life – with huge determination – he’s taken his training really seriously and is often up running before sunrise.
“I’m incredibly proud of him. The fact that he’s raised so much money for Cure Parkinson’s is amazing, and hopefully brings this fantastic charity one step close to finding a cure.”
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