April is Parkinson’s Awareness Month. At least 1 million people in the U.S. have Parkinson’s disease. There is no treatment to stop the disease from progressing in a person’s body, and there is no cure. Parkinson’s is an expensive disease, and we need a cure. The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research has spent more than $1 billion to help find a cure, and we need Congress to do the same. I hope 2022 can be the year we find a cure. Proclamations won’t cure Parkinson’s, but using that proclamation as a tool to reach out to the media can help raise awareness and the importance of being an advocate for increased research funding and access to medications.

I would like to thank these politicians for signing proclamations that their governments support Parkinson’s Awareness Month: Gov. Kate Brown, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, Wood Village Mayor T. Scott Harden, Troutdale Mayor Randy Lauer, Salem Mayor Chuck Bennett, Wilsonville Mayor Julie Fitzgerald, Beaverton Mayor Lacey Beaty, Tualatin Mayor Frank Bubenik and Oregon City Mayor Rachel Lyles Smith.

Kevin Mansfield, Portland