Blog: Introducing the Parkinson's Community Awards

The Parkinson’s community is a uniquely dedicated, inspiring and hard-working group of individuals. Made up of people with Parkinson’s, carers, loved ones, healthcare professionals and researchers. They each find inspiring and innovative ways to achieve great things and bring out the positives in life. And they often do all this with very little recognition or fanfare. They do it because they care. 

We want to celebrate those people! And the Parkinson’s Community Awards will do just that. It’s an opportunity to say thank you, and to say “I see you” to those people who otherwise wouldn’t get acknowledged. We’re honouring the superhumans we know and sharing their superpowers with others. That’s what it’s all about. Sharing great achievements by great people. 

This year there are 4 main award categories: 

• Keep Moving, Keep Smiling recognises those amazing people who overcome the obstacles and barriers that Parkinson's presents, with determination and humour, whether they're helping others or achieving "a win" for themselves. This category seeks to celebrate simple acts of kindness, an achievement in the face of adversity and those things that all too easily can get brushed off as “really, it was nothing” but had a profound impact on someone.  
• Feel Good honours the heroes that enable and promote activities and initiatives that support feeling better in body and mind. This category is for the boxercisers, the walking footballers and the ping-pong players, the dancers, the singers and the tai-chiers, the runners and the walkers, the gardeners and the therapists. It’s for anyone and everyone that enables the things that make others feel stronger, more confident and able to live better.  
• Get Creative, Be Creative acknowledges our artistic champions, people that enable activities and initiatives in the arts and creative space. This category is for the poets, writers and storytellers, the painters and visual creators, the actors and the joke tellers, the vloggers, bloggers and podcasters, the bakers and cooks, the sewers and the knitters. It’s for anyone and everyone that provides a creative outlet or inspiration so that others can bloom.    
• Going the Extra Mile appreciates the incredible efforts of people involved in fundraising, volunteering, awareness raising and any other professional field that's tackling Parkinson's. This category is for the organisers and facilitators, the spokespersons and the champions, the givers of time, money and voice and the fixers of things, all going above and beyond to tackle Parkinson's.  

And finally, there's a special judge's choice category for all round good eggs and energy givers: the Live Life, Love Life award. Everyone knows one. Let’s celebrate them!

The awards have been created with recognition and celebration in mind and everyone who is nominated will be recognised. Plus, the awards will run continuously throughout the year with 2 special moments, in October and in April, when we pause to showcase and celebrate nominees and their achievements.

I hope you’ll agree these awards are an overdue celebration of our fantastic community, who do so much to improve the lives of people with Parkinson’s and their families. We’d love for you to get involved.

We'll be celebrating and showcasing the first nominees on Saturday 14 October 2023, as part of the Parkinson's UK AGM and Community Day. As such, the first round of nominations will pause towards the end of September 2023. Nominations will then re-open on Monday 16 October 2023 until the next celebration in April 2024.