Poems for World Parkinson's Day 2022

People across the Parkinson’s community shared their poems to highlight their experiences with the condition.

Happy, funny, sad and thoughtful, the community told the world how Parkinson's has affected them or someone they love.

We received over 300 submissions, with some shared on social media, on big screens across the UK, and on YouTube.

Honoured to be part of #WorldParkinsonsDay & to share the work of @tapehead81 & @ParkinsonsUK pic.twitter.com/3hJLH2IlGW

— Mike Garry (@mikegarry) April 11, 2022

Thanks to the generous support of digital outdoor advertising company SmartOutdoor and a number of other companies, we displayed poems on more than 1,000 billboards across the UK. Take a look at some of them in this short video.

A huge thank you to @outdoor_smart and the other digital billboard companies who generously donated free space on over 1,000 sites across the country.

This has allowed us to display poems for #WorldParkinsonsDay and helping us to further raise awareness of the condition. 💙 pic.twitter.com/7f5cryrMzO

— Parkinson's UK (@ParkinsonsUK) April 11, 2022

Sam Ward, the Participation and Involvement Lead at Parkinson's UK, was involved with the core group of volunteers who shaped and led our involvement in World Parkinson's Day. She said:

"Poems for Parkinson’s came from a cafe group in the north east of England. It was an example of how a creative lockdown activity designed to keep people connected ended up catching the imagination of so many!

"Poems made people cry and laugh. They inspired one supporter to put them on outdoor advertising sites across the UK! None of us would have thought that was possible at the start and it shows how much you can achieve when the Parkinson's community comes together."