Tom Sheppard

Tom Sheppard, in his 70s, considers himself one of the lucky ones. He says he is in pretty good shape for the shape he is in.

Parkinson’s has been slow to progress and his prostate cancer seems to have taken a break. He deals with other chronic health issues, but continues to feel good.

He exercises intensely. He has taken an active role in his local Parkinson’s community and has written about his experience of living life with PD. Some ideas he is working on: Starting a non-profit to help people with Parkinson’s who can’t afford to attend much-needed fitness training classes. Put together a booklet that health care providers could give to the newly diagnosed. It would be full of local support information such as physical therapists, fitness classes, information provided by people with Parkinson’s, etc.

Over the last few years, he has been so busy with Parkinson’s life that he almost forgot. It only recently dawned on him that maybe he needs to put some effort into learning more about this nasty thing called metastatic prostate cancer. After 2 radiation series and dally medication his PSA has been 0.00 for 14 months. However, research and the oncologist say chances are it is still lurking undetected. So here goes another learning process to prepare for that coming battle.

His message is this: worship your care partner, research, socialize, exercise, give back, and do it all as intensely as you can for as long as you can.

Click here to read all of Tom's articles on ParkinsonsDisease.net.