For Cindy, Parkinson’s isn’t something she lives with. It’s something that lives beside her.
“Mr. Parkinson’s is my boyfriend,” she glances to the side. “He’s always right there, and he never lets me forget it.”
When everything begins to shift
More than a decade ago, Cindy first noticed something was off. At work, during meetings, her hand began to shake.
“I couldn’t write,” she recalls. “It looked like chicken scratch. I was embarrassed.”
This prompted her to see a doctor. Eventually, she was referred to a neurologist. After travelling back and forth between Surrey and Vancouver for appointments, she finally received a diagnosis: Parkinson’s.
“I didn’t know anything about it,” she says. “You read about it, but it’s not the same. It doesn’t kill you. It disables you.”
In the early days, there was no clear path forward.
“You’re learning everything yourself,” she says. “What the medication does. What helps. What doesn’t. It can get overwhelming.”
The person beside you
If Parkinson’s changed Cindy’s life, it also reshaped Paul’s, but always in response to hers.
Paul met Cindy through her brother. “We met, and the rest was history,” he simply says.
Together, they built a life with three children and successful careers. They had plans for retirement filled with travel and the outdoors.
Parkinson’s, however, was never part of that plan. But when it arrived, Paul didn’t step back.
Some nights, Cindy has trouble sleeping. Other nights, she’s experiencing hallucinations. Neither knows what to expect.
“You’re always thinking,” he says. “What can I do to make this easier for her?”
Caregiving, he’s learned, is often invisible.
“Nobody really sees what happens behind the scenes,” he says. “What it takes to make someone’s life a little better.”
But for Paul, there has never been a question of whether he would be there.
“I never give up, and I won’t let her give up,” he says. “As long as she’s fighting, I’ll keep fighting. No doubt.”
Finding hope in the everyday
Parkinson’s is unpredictable. “Some days are good, some days are hard,” Cindy says.
There are moments of fear, like the constant worry of falling when she stands up.
“Every day, I think: will I fall? I mustn’t fall,” she says. “That fear is always there.”
There are moments of frustration, too. With Parkinson’s comes the loss of control over your body. Accepting these changes can be challenging.
But even in those moments, Cindy finds ways to keep going. She still dreams of the things she’s always loved, like travelling and being outdoors.
“We’re not going anywhere,” Cindy says.
Paul pauses beside her, then gently adds, “We will go. Hang in there,” he says. “There’s hope. You make the most of each day.”
Not walking the journey alone
Over time, Cindy and Paul found their way to the integrated wrap-around care that supports them not just as patient and caregiver, but as a couple navigating this together.
At the Movement Disorder Clinic within Surrey’s Jim Pattison Outpatient Care and Surgery Centre, they’ve experienced what it means to have care centred on them.
“We were amazed,” Paul says. “This level of care so close to home.”
For Cindy, it’s about being heard. “It makes you feel like you can talk,” she says. “They take their time with you. You feel seen.”
For both, it means not having to figure everything out alone.
A message for others
After more than a decade of living with Parkinson’s, Cindy knows how isolating it can feel, especially in the beginning.
“We need more awareness,” she says. “More resources. More support.”
Because behind every diagnosis is not just one person but often two. And behind every difficult day, there is still the possibility of something else.
“It’s not a death sentence,” Cindy says. “I’m not going to die from it. I just have to manage it the best I can.”
For Cindy, that support has made it possible to keep moving forward, one day at a time. And beside her, Paul is still there. Steady and hopeful.
Supporting care that supports families
For people living with Parkinson’s, care doesn’t stop at diagnosis. It evolves over time – requiring coordination, expertise, and ongoing support for both patients and caregivers.
That’s why support like the Movement Disorder Clinic is so essential, bringing together specialists, therapies, and allied health care under one roof.
Through Surrey Hospitals Foundation’s Chronic Disease & Therapy Pillar of Care, donor support is helping expand access to this kind of integrated, compassionate care so people like Cindy and families like hers don’t have to navigate Parkinson’s alone.
Because living with a chronic disease takes more than treatment. It takes a whole community, standing beside you.
