By Gavin Boyle
After caring for her mother’s Parkinson’s for over 10 years, country singer Kimberly Schlapman now helps empower those caring for family members with a chronic illness that requires extreme attention.
“I’ve learned that it’s okay to say this is really hard. This is hard in a number of ways. It can be difficult. It can be frustrating. It can be devastatingly sad, and it is. To watch the person that you’ve known all of your life that’s been on top of the mountain and invincible and watch them so drastically change. At no fault of their own,” Schlapman said of chronic illness.
“If you have support around you, people that understand that it’s really hard and understand what it’s like and they want to hear from you and just talk about how you’re feeling. Man, that’s important,” she continued.
Because she knows how hard it can be to be a caregiver, Schlapman launched her nonprofit, Changing the Tune of Parkinson’s Disease, to make caring for someone dealing with Parkinson’s just a little easier.
Related: How Michael J. Fox Takes ‘Each Day as It Comes’ Amid Parkinson’s Battle
“[The nonprofit] aims to empower people living with Parkinson’s disease and their loved ones to be vocal about the true impact of the disease on their daily life and encourage people with Parkinson’s and their care partners to work with their doctor to find a plan that works for them,” the organization’s website explains.
Parkinson’s is a very difficult disease to face as it progressively disrupts the nervous system, eventually causing a patient to lose much of their control over their body and be unable to perform even basic tasks.
Beyond her new nonprofit, Schlapman has worked to raise awareness about Parkinson’s in the past, partnering with Michael J. Fox to explain what it looks like to live with this disease.
“It’s a great opportunity that I’ve been given to do things and to help people and to motivate other people to get involved,” Fox told Schlapman in an interview for Entertainment Tonight. Fox’s foundation, which was created in 2000, has raised over $2 billion for Parkinson’s research.
While Fox is honest about the difficulties of living with the disease, he also encourages those who have Parkinson’s to not allow it to define their lives.
“Don’t let anybody else tell you what you should be feeling or what you do feel or that it’s not anything that can be helped or can be addressed,” he said. “We have to take the reins and drive the thing forward.”
While Parkinson’s is an extremely taxing disease, it is amazing to see how celebrities like Schlapman and Fox work to raise awareness and funds to help those living with and caring for those with Parkinson’s.
Read Next: How Michael J. Fox and His Wife Balance Family, Work and Parkinson’s
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