"We're a team": Katie and Chris's story
Chris was diagnosed with young‑onset Parkinson’s in 2020. Since then, he and his fiancée Katie have found plenty of ways to help others starting out on their Parkinson’s journey.
In September 2025, Katie and Chris headed back to the campsite they’d stayed at the last 3 years. This time, they had their new dog with them too, a rescued Cairn Terrier called Yogi.
Before long, they were approached by a woman they recognised from their previous trips, desperate to talk to them. She explained that her son had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s 9 months earlier at the age of just 36, and Chris was the only other person she’d ever met with young-onset Parkinson’s.
“She’d been waiting 9 months to talk to us, with no idea where else to turn.” Katie explains.
And there are other challenges that come with developing Parkinson’s at a relatively young age: “A lot of Parkinson’s support groups and activities happen during working hours, even if they are online.”
Then there’s the extra stress of being challenged by a stranger who thinks you’re “too young to be parking in a disabled space”, or mistakes your movement symptoms for being drunk.
“Just this summer I was saying goodbye to some friends in the pub when I noticed a stream of missed calls from Chris, who had already gone out to the car,” says Katie. “It turned out that a group of people had been laughing at him, which had made him even more anxious.”
Finding your tribe
Chris and Katie knew early on in their Parkinson’s journey that they wanted to build a community of people who understood.
They worked with Parkinson’s UK to launch a support group near their home in Lichfield which meets one evening a month in a pub. “I said to Chris that if no one turns up, at least we can have a date night!” says Katie.
But the group now has regular members who stay in touch via WhatsApp between meetings.
“We started off as a social meetup,” Katie says, “but now we’re a bit more established, people have asked us to set topics for discussion each month.”
People can be nervous before visiting a group for the first time, Katie acknowledges: “I always tell them to just come once."
Nothing beats getting in a room with people from the Parkinson’s community.
“Yes there are challenges, but there’s always something positive to celebrate too. It’s never just a bowl of misery soup!”
Widen your community
And Chris and Katie make an incredibly welcoming team.
Katie describes Chris as “much more of an introvert than me, but the most sociable person I know. He won’t suggest doing something, but if you ask him, he’s in.”
And Katie knows how important it is to embrace the partners, family and friends who come along too.
She says: “We have wonderful friends and family, but there are things I wouldn’t discuss with them because it would feel like a betrayal of Chris. You need people to talk to both inside and outside of Parkinson’s, both are of equal value.”
Better Conversations
Chris and Katie’s partnership made them the ideal volunteers for a research project called Better Conversations being run by University College London.
Katie says: “Most of the current advice for people with communication difficulties is just about telling the person with Parkinson’s how to speak better. But conversation takes at least 2 people!
“We wanted to help speech therapists to work with partners and supporters, so they could be better at bringing someone with Parkinson’s into the conversation.”
That led to work with Parkinson’s UK on involving the Parkinson’s community in the charity’s work, and most recently to Katie joining the group planning this year’s Par-Con, our convention for the Parkinson’s community. Read more about Par-Con.
Working as a team
They also worked as a team to plan how to explain Chris’s diagnosis to his employers. “After a year, we eventually told his topline manager and HR director together. They were great, and made sure Chris had all the equipment he needed to carry on working full-time.”
Chris’s advice is to try out as many aids, apps and tools as possible. His stiffness makes a conventional computer mouse tricky to use, but he recommends a large trackball instead. He also finds that using a single walking pole makes trips with his walking and running club easier.
I always say that we are living with Parkinson’s. We’re a team.
And the team will be made even more official in June 2026 when Chris and Katie get married.
Long-time magician Chris proposed with the same card trick he’d shown Katie on their 5th date back in 2018.
“Somehow he had predicted which card I could pick, the King of Hearts, and had written ‘Marry me’ on it. I still don’t know how he did it, but I’m his biggest fan!”