A Tamworth trio will take their first steps on a 100km pilgrimage for Parkinson’s Disease in Spain on Tuesday.
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While Jenni Fergus has Parkinson’s Disease she has used the diagnosis to motivate her, and her family have stepped up to, with husband David and sister Eileen Fleming joining her on the El Camino pilgrimage from Sarria to Santiago.
The team originally set out to raise an optimistic $12,000 for the Shake it Up Australia Foundation, although with the support of the Movers, Sippers and Shakers support and exercise group they smashed that mark by more than $5000.
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The $17,102 raised is also matched dollar for dollar by the Michael J Fox Foundation, with the entire Shake It Up Australia team of ten raising a combined $84,000, meaning over $168,000 of research.
“With so much focus on drought relief, and rightly so, we never considered the fundraising to be a race to the goal posts, but it has been incredible, we have had so much support,” Mrs Fergus said.
“The Movers and Shakers have been so supportive, as have the 91 donors and helpers that have got us past our target.”
The trio have been training hard all over the Tamworth area to tackle the 100 km in just five days.
Ironically it was the PD diagnosis that pushed Mrs Fergus into exercise, and she has never looked back, using the illness as motivation to start ticking items off her bucket list, including the El Camino.
“It is very exciting – we want to honour our sponsors and we carry the hope of all people whose lives have been affected by Parkinson’s,” she said.
