For the Demoucelle Parkinson Charity, 2024 was another busy year, in which we built on and stepped up several of our ongoing activities, but also took several new initiatives to raise funds, promote greater awareness, and advance research – and especially home grown, Belgian research — into Parkinson’s disease.
PROMOTING AWARENESS
At the very beginning of last year, we concluded our innovative and well received ‘Helping Hands’ campaign to illustrate both how patients struggle with Parkinson’s disease and how healthy people can help to find a cure. This was also a key theme in our continuing active social media presence throughout the rest of the year on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
In addition, we also produced a range of interviews with Parkinson patients and caretakers, as well as with several recognized experts on various aspects of the condition, including its causes, new kinds of treatments, psychological impact, and relationship with dementia. These groundbreaking interviews have become a key part of our effort to promote greater awareness about Parkinson’s disease.
We stepped up our efforts last year to reach out to Parkinson’s researchers, to underline the crucial importance of their work, increase their awareness about what it is like to live with Parkinson’s disease, both as a patient and as a caregiver, and to share with them our own experience about dealing with setbacks, overcoming challenges, and pushing ahead. Researchers often tell us how valuable they find this kind of interaction, and so we are keen to further intensify our engagement with them next year.
RAISING FUNDS
Many of our activities serve a dual purpose, by promoting awareness as well as raising funds. This applies to our annual ‘Tulips for Hope’ campaign that is centered around the international symbol for Parkinson’s disease. And it certainly applies to ‘Run, or Walk, for Parkinson’, where our 400+ runners, walkers and handicapped athletes again made up one of the largest teams in the Brussels 20k last year.
Funds and awareness were also raised in other, sometimes very imaginative ways last year, such as at golf competitions, concerts, weddings, and birthdays. We very much appreciate all those kinds of support by enthusiastic individuals, families, service clubs, etc. and will always stand ready to give advice, a presentation, information material, or other kinds of assistance.
Both in the context of ‘Run, or Walk, for Parkinson’ and on other occasions, we were again supported by several companies last year. Some big, others small. Some that supported us for the first time, and others that have been very loyal sponsors for years. We are most grateful for the generosity of all these companies, and we hope we can count on them again in the future.
We remain deeply grateful to our major donors, whether they are foundations, private individuals who are making significant contributions or including us in their will, or companies sponsoring our events or leveraging one of their own events to support DPC. They have all made an enormous difference to our work and we want to continue nurturing these valuable relationships. Looking ahead, we will further strengthen our major donor strategy by expanding our engagement programmes, providing more detailed impact reporting, and creating additional opportunities for meaningful involvement in our mission.
ADVANCING RESEARCH
For many years, to help find a cure for Parkinson’s disease faster, the Demoucelle Parkinson Charity has been sponsoring promising research projects in Belgium and elsewhere in Europe that are focused on disease modifying therapeutics and at or beyond the pre-clinical development phase. We are pleased that, working closely with The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, we could offer financial support to four of those projects last year.
The year before last, to stimulate home-grown Parkinson’s research right here in Belgium, we launched an annual award of 1,000 Euros for one or more Masters’ theses as well as a biennial PhD fellowship covering four years of salary and working costs. Last year, an international jury of Parkinson experts selected Thibaut Heyninck as the first recipient of the Masters prize. And after Maaike Goris, who is continuing her work on freezing of gait in Parkinson’s patients, we hope to select the second recipient of the PhD fellowship this year.
As noted above, we have been stepping up our engagement with Parkinson’s researchers. And we are trying in particular to help young Belgian researchers, by coaching them and teaching them presentation skills, and by giving them the opportunity to talk about their research and seek greater recognition and support, including by recording short video clips. Given the very positive response to these initiatives, we want to continue to step up this effort this year.
ALL ABOUT PEOPLE
Whether they are patients, caregivers, researchers or donors, people are at the heart of everything we do at the Demoucelle Parkinson Charity. We are particularly grateful to the members of our board, who are all eminent experts in their field and give us tremendous advice and support. And we want to send a special word of thanks to our wonderful volunteers. They are the ones who make it all happen and, without them, DPC wouldn’t be where it is today.
We were very pleased to welcome several new volunteers last year, including a few Parkinson patients and family members. They brought fresh ideas and hands-on support, and they joined a group of true friends. If you should be interested in joining us too, or receiving our regular newsletter, please contact us at charity@demoucelle.com.