This is the English version of the article that appeared, in Spanish, on Con p de párkinson.
On networks, conferences and Parkinson's disease
I am a translator and, at work, I am fortunate to interact with a huge number of colleagues who are in training. Whenever I can, I strongly encourage them to participate in associations and, if possible, in in-person events such as conferences. Why? Because having a network of contacts is essential when you are a translator: you never know where an interesting project, a possibility of collaboration or, directly, a job may arise.
Having recovered from the initial shock of the diagnosis, it was logical and even normal for me to start thinking about how to build a new network. Although it goes without saying, the internet is an never-ending source of groups, organized by age, sex or gender, geographic location, specific symptoms, exercise or even marital status. However, although the World Parkinson Congress 2016 was held in Oregon - just across the country from me - I didn't follow it in much detail and decided against participating in the next one, held in Tokyo in 2019. At the time, I didn't know how much I would regret it.
Between 2016 and 2019, I continued to weave my web - a little in person, a lot in networks. Even today, it still amazes me that there were hardly any groups of YOPD people New York. At one point, I met Liz Day, who, armed with firece determination (she ran the New York City Marathon in 2019, ladies and gentlemen), created a group that spans the city and surrounding areas. I met Larry Gifford, Soania Mathur and Tim Hague, who would eventually assemble the PD Avengers; Richelle Flanagan, Kat Hill and Sree Sripathy, who created the Women's Parkinson's Project; Becca Miller, Christine Jeyachandran, Jonny Acheson, David Sangster, Heather Kennedy and so many more. Many of them traveled hours and hours and met in Tokyo in 2019. I followed the Congress with a little more attention and, despite being thousands of miles away, I noticed that something was moving, as strange as it sounds, among people with a movement disorder. When they announced that the 2022 edition would be held in Barcelona, I almost reacted like Mafalda when she found out she would have a baby brother (spoiler: she faints).
Photo by Vitor Monteiro on Unsplash
At the end of 2020, I saw a tweet that caught my attention. It included an article that referenced Helen Mirren and, they said, her Parkinson's, as well as a new blog, Con p de párkinson. I responded to the tweet by pointing out that it is not clear that Helen Mirren has Parkinson's and that, in the interview they mentioned, she was talking about her process of becoming aware of Parkinson's as a result of the experience of someone close to her. I then sent a message to the bloggers to thank them for the initiative. Suddenly, my network was spreading in my country as well. And here we are, six months later, with around 30,000 hits on the blog and 114 articles by almost 40 authors.
You go to a congress for two reasons: to learn something new from the presentations and to weave that network I was talking about. So, between May 17 and 19, the first virtual edition of the WPC was held. It was a very intense three days... of videoconferences. As I write this article, I have not yet seen all the recordings. We talked about hard science, science from an informative point of view, living well with Parkinson's, new treatments and palliative care. As it was online, the network has not been as dense as I would like, but I hope that the return of in-person events will allow it very soon.
For a translator, participating in a congress is an investment. For a person with Parkinson's, too, but the benefits of this investment go far beyond the economic aspect. Ens veiem a Barcelona!