“Exercise is absolutely vital; it’s like medicine.”
When Caroline was diagnosed with Parkinson’s she didn’t envisage being able to live the life she has now, fostering children, travelling and competing in walking football – let alone making the England Women’s Parkinson’s Walking Football team!
When she was diagnosed at 55 years old, the only symptom she’d noticed was a tremor in her little finger. She didn’t have much knowledge of Parkinson’s at the time and remembers feeling overwhelmed:
“I didn’t know that it can progress at different rates or that exercise can help slow its progression. I kept thinking ‘tomorrow I’m going to be in a wheelchair. Tomorrow I’m not going to be able to move’.
“It took a good six months of waking up every day waiting for another symptom to appear before I decided I’ve got to start living my life again. I can’t hang around waiting for something to happen and, if it does happen, I’ve just got to get on with it.”
Exercising with Parkinson’s
Being active is a big part of Caroline’s life and how she manages her symptoms.
“On the back of lockdown, because I couldn’t go to the gym, I realised that exercise was something that I needed to keep doing because it definitely reduced my symptoms,” she said.
After some online research, she discovered Reach You Peak and signed up to their Get Started programme. “It was really useful. It doesn’t just target your normal everyday gym work. It really gets your brain thinking and gets you moving around and doing different things that you wouldn’t necessarily do.
“I like the structure and having the exercises outlined for you. I also like knowing that the exercises I’m doing are testing abilities like coordination and strength.”
Caroline believes staying active has helped slow the progression of her Parkinson’s:
“I started off on a very low dose of meds that they said in two weeks would be increased to a higher dose. Interestingly, I haven’t gone up at all; I’ve stayed on the same dose that I was given six years ago. I put that down to exercise and diet.”
“I like the structure and having the exercises outlined for you. I also like knowing that the exercises I’m doing are testing abilities like coordination and strength.”
Although she’s finished her Reach Your Peak programme she still returns to the platform’s YouTube channel when what she calls a much needed ‘Reach Your Peak tonic’.
“Every time I feel like I just need a little bit of variety, or I need to focus more on coordination or balance, I use their YouTube channel.
“For example, if I need to do fast feet, which is one exercise I dislike, I find doing it with them makes it manageable. I get a full body workout that always puts me through my paces.
“They are, in Tina Turner’s words, simply the best at what they do. They’re always very approachable and you feel that you get their time and their attention.”
Caroline has also experienced mental health benefits from her exercise and says she is better at living in the moment.
“I know when I start doing my cardio, my brain fog lifts. Straight away I feel energised. I come away feeling lighter in my mind and body, and my body’s more responsive to the demands I put on it.”
“They are, in Tina Turner’s words, simply the best at what they do. They’re always very approachable and you feel that you get their time and their attention.”
One of those demands is running the walking football group Parkinson’s Taunton Trailblazers. She says: “We have a kick around and then have a cup of tea afterwards and it’s a nice sociable thing for people as well. It’s become a great forum for people to share their experiences with Parkinson’s.”
After securing funding for continued sessions back in 2022, Caroline said she set up the group because she wanted to “give something back… because it makes me feel so good”.
“For me, exercise is a very social thing. It’s absolutely vital; it’s like medicine. If I don’t exercise, I feel my symptoms more, I feel sluggish, I don’t feel as connected to whatever’s going on in my life.”
Caroline says making sure she’s got the right support around her is vital too:
“Reach Your Peak is excellent because they offer a range of tools and techniques to help support people with Parkinson’s and exercise programmes.”
If you’d like to find out more our Parkinson’s specific exercise programme that supported Caroline, please visit Get Started today.
