Latest / Adventures in Adversity: an inspirational podcast / Ep. 83: Parkinson’s Disease advocacy - how George's Mom, Sharon, inspired his mission to find a cure

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Ep. 83: Parkinson’s Disease advocacy - how George's Mom, Sharon, inspired his mission to find a cure · Adventures in Adversity: an inspirational podcast

0:01
All right, we are back again, episode number 83.
0:06
Very grateful to say that as always, if you are new here,
0:09
this podcast, Adventures and Adversity really is a collection
0:14
of stories from real people who share their journey about how
0:18
they are turning life's adversity into an adventure and
0:22
really just trying to spread, spread the stories that give
0:28
people encouragement and hope with what they're going through.
0:31
So with that, episode 83, grateful to be here.
0:34
I would love to welcome my guest, George.
0:37
George Ackerman. Thank you for being here.
0:41
I really appreciate your time Brianne, and thank your
0:43
audience. It's really important to really
0:46
see what you're doing, but also change the world for the better
0:49
for so many. Absolutely, absolutely.
0:52
And you now I'm going to read a little bit about you George and
0:56
kind of and then I'm going to hand it over to you to start
0:58
sharing your story. You are an advocate you I'm
1:02
looking at your page here, your link tree.
1:05
You're all about Parkinson's disease awareness and beautiful
1:10
in memory of your mother. And your mission is really to
1:13
voice awareness and hope for a cure for Parkinson's and
1:20
incredible cause. And I know it comes from your
1:23
story, which you're going to share.
1:25
So again, please check the show notes as you're watching this.
1:29
After you watch this, I'm going to put all the links, George, to
1:33
all of your wonderful resources here.
1:36
We've got your book which we'll talk about, your YouTube
1:39
channel, your podcast together for Sharon, all of the places
1:43
where they can learn more about you and your cause.
1:46
Thank you. Yeah, so George, we got, we got
1:49
connected through Instagram, I believe through some of our
1:53
content. And I, when we started chatting,
1:57
I started looking at what you were doing.
1:59
And again, I'm just really inspired by how open you are
2:03
about your journey caring for your mom with Parkinson's.
2:07
And if you don't mind, wherever you'd like to start, kind of
2:12
take us back to where this, this sort of all began.
2:15
Yeah, I never dreamt I'd be a caregiver, let alone at the age
2:18
it was or even an advocate. Never even heard much about
2:22
Parkinson's disease unfortunately.
2:25
Lost my mother 1/1/2020 due to Parkinson's and it changed my
2:30
life and our family forever. She is only 69 and to me that's
2:34
a baby. These days, like for the
2:36
technology, people are living much, much, much longer lives.
2:39
Unfortunately. She, you know, had this sort of
2:42
was diagnosed. We don't know if she had it for
2:44
18 years longer or even shorter. I'm not sure if she just wasn't
2:48
sure, you know, about the disease or if she didn't want to
2:51
burden the family. That's how she was.
2:53
But before that, you know, I was born in Brooklyn, NY, or
2:57
Elizabethtown, New Jersey, but raised in Brooklyn, NY.
3:00
And mother and father didn't really have much.
3:03
And my mother was a school teacher and had a master's
3:06
degree in psychology and gave it all up.
3:08
Never even really could have done so much more to heart
3:11
potential but to raise me and my brother.
3:13
And that just showed sacrifice. And after that, we moved to
3:18
South Florida. So that's where I am still
3:20
today. And I'm not really thrilled
3:22
because it's actually almost 20° here.
3:25
It's not, you say Florida. I understand New York, but not.
3:28
Yeah. But I, you know, So anyway, we,
3:32
I decided to set my field in my life and to dedicate the victims
3:36
of crime. I was a victim in New York once
3:39
of a crime, but growing up in Brooklyn saw a lot of things.
3:42
So it was literally raised in the world of the Mafia and saw a
3:45
lot of stuff that never really, you know, talk about because
3:48
it's so much more about Parkinson's.
3:50
It's more important when I see people in anything in the world
3:55
kind of don't have a voice, I try to speak up for them.
3:58
So I did. I became an attorney in Florida,
4:00
in Washington. And I don't like saying it
4:03
backwards, but in a way, I did go from the law to the police
4:07
field because as an attorney, I worked at the prosecutor's
4:10
office in my internship and noticed that you just don't have
4:13
the time for the victims. Like I want to have so many
4:16
cases kind of with discourage. So I decided why not go into the
4:20
field, maybe help victims. And then I noticed the same
4:23
thing. You just put the hand brochure
4:25
and move on. It's just too many calls.
4:27
So I had to honor after being a police officer.
4:30
I'm still today, but I'm a reserve.
4:32
I did my PhD and became professor of criminal justice.
4:36
And the great thing for that was had an opportunity to either go
4:40
to federal, but I decided I like education.
4:43
Did I feel like you learned from the students?
4:45
You might not be able to do everything, but now you can
4:48
because you lived through them and they really inspire me.
4:52
But I was able to do my dissertation on aiding African
4:55
American mothers who lost their loved ones due to murder in West
4:59
Palm Beach, FL. So I became very close with the
5:02
group and the president. Unfortunately, you know, due to
5:05
crime, they lost their loved one.
5:07
And what was fascinating is how these women were able to
5:11
reintegrate themselves back into society through faith and
5:14
community. Otherwise they would never have
5:16
been able to. And still they struggle.
5:18
But again, abruptly, that'll stop when one night, for some
5:22
reason, after my mother struggled, she was, you know,
5:25
lived independent. She lived alone.
5:27
She loved living alone because your independence is very
5:29
important. But all of a sudden, I'd say the
5:33
fifth year, she started having stiffness in her left arm.
5:36
And it wasn't so bad that she had to have extra attention.
5:39
But we were worried. So 15 doctors and no one said to
5:43
panic. They didn't say anything really,
5:45
which is still, I don't think the anything we today we could
5:48
have done differently. And then I learned, you know
5:51
what the word Parkinson was, but we still didn't know it was even
5:53
a disease because she never really showed any bad symptoms.
5:57
She decided, and I didn't have much to do with it, to go to do
6:01
a trial for people with Parkinson's and a school that I
6:04
don't blame and the doctors I don't blame because it's a
6:06
disease that as we were speaking earlier, unfortunately at 4, AMI
6:10
got a call when she came home from the trial.
6:13
I don't know if they, I think for trials and I'm not a medical
6:16
doctor, but she really require and force the patients to stay
6:20
there for a week just to monitor them.
6:22
But she didn't do that. I don't know if it's her own
6:24
fault, but she came home that night because it was local and
6:27
she, I got a call from my father in New York to rush over to my
6:30
mother's house at 4:00 AM. Never did that in my whole
6:34
entire life because there was no reason.
6:35
And when I drove up, I kind of approached it like a police
6:39
officer. And I'm like, you know, what's
6:41
going on? And she was moving her furniture
6:43
out of her house and she thought, she said she thought
6:46
there were Nazis inside and they were going to harm her.
6:48
And I don't know what to do or say.
6:49
I went in the house to make sure, obviously, because she's a
6:52
very, you know, honest, but there was nothing.
6:55
And I decided to rush to the hospital because I couldn't, I
6:58
wasn't training for that. Then we learned that was the
7:01
first time we learned delusions and hallucinations.
7:04
And it was frightening, not even that part, but the hospital said
7:08
we saved her life. But it was never the same after
7:10
that night. But I went back to get her some
7:13
clothes, which I don't tell a lot of people.
7:15
And it was almost like the movie, if you remember A
7:17
Beautiful Mind. I walked into a bedroom.
7:19
I went in a bedroom, which I never really go because it's
7:22
pride. I'm nothing to go my mom, but I
7:24
walked in and they were actually posted notes like we used to
7:27
keep reminder surrounding the room and on the notes were
7:30
people's names and animals that aren't alive.
7:33
And and she would write who's there and who's not because I
7:36
guess she was losing sense of reality.
7:38
And honestly, that was more heartbreaking than anything that
7:42
So that was where my journey literally started as a caregiver
7:45
for four years and then today, six years later, still
7:49
advocating. Obviously, we can't bring her
7:51
back. But I didn't want her, number
7:53
one, to be forgotten because of the disease.
7:55
And #2 really kills me today and breaks my heart seeing other
7:59
people still battling it. And that's why I do is we can't
8:02
bring her back again, but we can ensure other families and people
8:06
number one, don't feel alone like we did or, you know, have
8:10
to go through this. And I, shockingly, we thought,
8:13
my mother and I, we thought she was the only one in the world
8:15
who had Parkinson's. We didn't know anyone.
8:21
Thank you for sharing, for sharing all of that and and a
8:25
couple things come to mind. First, I want to just express my
8:29
condolences for your loss. Obviously, really, really as
8:33
I've been looking at all of the content you create, just seeing
8:36
pictures of your mom and just you can really tell that you
8:39
guys were had a beautiful relationship.
8:42
So first of that and I, I also wanted to thank you for your
8:46
time as a police officer and for the things that you're doing now
8:49
and for the victim advocacy both, like you said before,
8:54
with, with crime, as well as advocacy with Parkinson's
8:58
disease, the people who are suffering from it as well as
9:01
their families, right, that are trying to take care of them.
9:03
So thank you for raising awareness to this.
9:07
We were talking before we hit record that, you know, the
9:10
things that get all the attention in the clicks tend to
9:14
maybe not be the most wholesome at times or helpful.
9:17
So we're hoping that messages like these and stories like
9:20
yours can start to get some views so that people don't feel
9:26
alone, right. So, so take me through George,
9:31
when you as a caretaker, if somebody listening maybe is at
9:36
the beginning of that journey or is considering like, OK, I think
9:39
it might be time for me to step in or as a caretaker.
9:42
What mindset did you have to have kind of not having done
9:46
that before? Yeah, just a quick note,
9:48
Parkinson's disease and the fortune is the fastest growing
9:51
neurological disorder in the country.
9:53
There's about a million people probably more affected, but that
9:57
multiply that times the caregivers, the families is a
10:00
lot more than there's 10 million people out of the US who I also
10:03
consider family battling it. And shockingly, I learned just
10:07
recently that lead scientist, doctor Boss Bloom, who I met
10:10
with in New York City out of Michael J Fox function every 20
10:14
minutes. Now today, someone's being
10:16
diagnosed. And if you saw the research
10:18
lately, unfortunately, I know a lot about this as I study it,
10:21
but we have a, they believe in just about 10 to 15 years.
10:25
It's going to be almost 15,000,000 people.
10:27
It's going to go from 1 to 15,000,000 in just a few years
10:31
because I believe it's environmental.
10:33
And there's a lot of things that listeners can do to get
10:36
involved. Contact your legislators.
10:38
We just started a podcast, myself and my friend who's the
10:41
president of Power of Parkinson's, Margaret Preston in
10:45
Virginia. It's called the Parkinson Policy
10:47
Podcast. It's the only one in the world,
10:49
literally, in my opinion, and I've seen that's only focus on
10:53
policy and how people can get involved.
10:55
We've had the legislators on. We're going to actually air the
10:58
next month the former lead of the NIH, which was not, it took
11:03
a year to get the NIH director on the show.
11:05
So this is a huge thing to talk about.
11:09
But you know, a lot of shows and things, even what I do, we can
11:12
talk and talk, but now we can get people can do something.
11:15
So it only takes a minute to call your legislators.
11:18
They need to ban also something called Paraqui, which is a
11:21
poison used in Roundup and a lot of the landscaping companies
11:25
that ban in every country except US and China and Australia.
11:29
Sorry, it's even ban in China. That's just a little start.
11:32
Also unfortunate, the new government, they've cut a lot of
11:36
funding, but the problem is they also cut for Parkinson's
11:39
research. So that's a big problem.
11:41
So I had the honor to be selected by the Michael J Fox
11:43
Foundation. They went to the Capitol last
11:45
March. They've asked me to return, so I
11:47
guess I did OK. This March, I'll be heading back
11:50
to Congress to try to raise awareness for all these things.
11:54
But we can't do this alone. Every listener you have can just
11:58
pick up a phone, send an e-mail, or even a social media post to
12:02
make their voices count to. But rewinding to caregiving, I
12:06
had no clue what I was doing. I didn't really want to be a
12:09
caregiver. I didn't.
12:10
I wasn't prepared. There's no class I think you
12:12
could take. I knew that even even though
12:15
doctor said she wouldn't pass due to Parkinson's, in my brain
12:18
it was like, we'll try everything, but maybe I should
12:21
spend as much time as I can just in case because she was getting
12:24
worse. Also with Parkinson's.
12:26
It's not just one thing. Some of viewers might know the
12:29
famous actor Michael J Fox, who is a hero of mine, I had the
12:33
honor to meet him three or four Times Now, was with him a few
12:36
weeks ago in New York at the gala for the Michael J Fox,
12:39
where they raised over 1 billion, not a million billion
12:42
dollars towards the research. And they have been making good
12:45
ground. But there's still no cure today.
12:48
And the only thing is the exercise can slow the
12:50
progression. That didn't really help our
12:52
family or my mother at that point.
12:55
But so the things, the signs, if you don't know, obviously you
12:58
need to see a movement specialist, the neurologist, but
13:01
not just a general neurologist has to be movement disorder
13:05
specialist. And a lot of people don't even
13:06
have one in their state or even their county.
13:09
So that's another big issue. They have to drive like hours
13:13
for just to see the doctor. Tremors is a sign like Mr. Fox
13:17
unfortunately shows and by the way, I don't get any money, but
13:20
if he's friend, if you go see even tonight, I think it's
13:22
episode 2 of shrinking the Apple TV show.
13:26
Michael J Fox actually was in it and he came back since it's been
13:29
like decades since he's done shows and it's a beautiful show.
13:32
Harrison Ford and Jason Segel and it kind of can make you
13:36
laugh but also cry at the same time.
13:38
So that's the first Parkinson's TV show.
13:41
I I know they've covered it, but fully around that topic in the
13:44
world ever. So it's really important because
13:46
they're bringing awareness, but also the things like small
13:50
handwriting, loss of smell, trouble sleeping, the list goes
13:54
on. Constipation, the big one, no
13:55
one wants to talk about softer, low voice, facial masking,
14:00
dizziness, hunching over. And there's five stages they
14:04
believe to Parkinson's. And the first 3 show signs that
14:08
someone could still live independently.
14:09
But stages 4 and 5 is when you might, you might stumble and
14:13
fall. You need a full time caregiver
14:15
or to be in a home and we swore to my mother we would never put
14:19
her in a home, but it cost me and my family about $12,000 a
14:23
month for the last year because she didn't sleep and she needed
14:26
round the clock care and normal people can't do that.
14:30
So it was very tough. So being a caregiver, I didn't,
14:33
I always say I didn't have Parkinson's, but I do feel like
14:35
I had secondary Parkinson's, which is a term I'm claiming to
14:39
coin, which means that I didn't obviously have the diagnosis,
14:43
but I felt all the effects because I was holding her hand
14:45
through all this stuff. So, you know, we every day was
14:49
like one of those games when you get the whack A mole thing where
14:52
you hit the little mole. Yeah, I felt.
14:54
So those are some of the things. But you go through anger, you go
14:58
through frustration. I'm a, you know, personally
15:01
where I have a list and I definitely accomplish everything
15:03
in my life. But like, everyone failed and it
15:06
was very tough. I even have a fun story about,
15:09
you know, in Florida, it just became at the time of medical
15:12
marijuana license and I was a, I'm a police officer.
15:16
I was like, I don't think I can get her, but she was really
15:19
suffering. So I said I cannot try.
15:21
Maybe she'll have less pain. But it was like I felt like the
15:24
movie Mission Impossible walking through the place.
15:28
So that unfortunately it didn't work at the time.
15:30
The doctors don't speak to the distillery.
15:32
So either she took one pill because I don't like the smoking
15:35
part. We tried the pill and she either
15:38
fell over in the wheelchair too much or agitated her more.
15:41
But that's again another show. So just trying to figure.
15:45
Out ways to help her feel better.
15:48
Yeah, that's kind of the, you know, the Fast forward.
15:52
But I did. A lot of it was tough.
15:54
The last year was the most difficult, and the delusions and
15:57
hallucinations didn't help. We had to remove the telephone
16:00
from her room because she was calling the police.
16:02
She thought all the aids were harming her.
16:04
I had to put video cameras in the house as I'm a cop.
16:07
And thankfully there was nothing bad.
16:09
But if you're in a home, I couldn't even monitor it.
16:11
So it's just millions of things. So I wrote the book A Son's
16:15
Journey from Parkinson's disease Caregiver to Advocate, and that
16:18
was my first book. I've written 7 now, which I
16:21
honestly am proud I did them. But it's hard to get awareness
16:25
for podcasts and for books because it's a, you know,
16:28
specific population. It's just me.
16:31
So I do this 24/7 for free and voluntary.
16:34
And we spent our families probably donated about $70,000
16:38
over the years and we'd never asked for a penny back.
16:40
But it's hard when you again, see what's happening sometimes
16:44
on social media and the things that people like and share.
16:47
But this is something that unfortunately, either people
16:50
have to be shocked or, you know, I don't want them to gain it or
16:54
have a friend or family or community.
16:56
But it's coming, unfortunately, to a place near you unless
16:59
everybody joins in this fight. Yes, yes, and, and you mentioned
17:04
and thank you for the background too.
17:06
For anyone out there listening, being trying to be aware of
17:10
symptoms and being aware of your health, right.
17:13
What have you found? Like it's really to to help
17:18
drive change. It's really about, it seems like
17:22
couple things, right, like raising the awareness and then
17:25
raising the funds to actually fund the research that will
17:29
hopefully find a cure. Yeah, I think every part is
17:33
important. The biggest issue, interesting
17:36
thing. On my show we've had only a
17:39
year. I think of 400 episodes.
17:41
Not because I wanted to, but because everyone inspires me and
17:43
I would say I'm burnt out, but I'm still grieving six years
17:47
later. My mother was my best friend.
17:50
I joke because a lot people have met me.
17:51
I've been to many events now and met a lot of the community,
17:55
which is beautiful. But I am 6 to 200 lbs and I'm
17:58
not the you know, don't look friendly, but this stuff and
18:01
I've speak, I could talk in front of thousands of people.
18:03
I'm not shy, but even a little one-on-one like this is
18:06
emotional because it's still proud to have my mother here.
18:09
And even during how like my son Eli just turned 9 yesterday and
18:13
we had a cute little party even though it's freezing here.
18:16
But you know, my mother would have loved to have seen that and
18:18
she used to fight. And that's what our newest book,
18:21
which is not really like a plug, but no.
18:24
Please please. Plug it, please.
18:26
It's called I love you, Grandma Sharon.
18:28
It's about my daughter Brooks and Grandma's days with
18:32
Parkinson's. You know, when I was struggling,
18:34
we didn't have it. And also I didn't know what to
18:36
say even today because my youngest, Eli, he's now 9, he
18:39
was a baby when my mother kind of was getting worse.
18:42
So I don't think he'll ever remember her.
18:44
So I have trouble trying to tell my three children what happened.
18:48
But my daughter Brooke was especially close, closest to my
18:52
mother. So this book is actually our
18:54
family pictures and they turn them AI and it goes with the
18:58
story. But you could see the hardest
19:00
thing about this book is you have to have the progression,
19:02
right? Because they're aging the
19:03
character. So you'll see it starts with my
19:06
mother, who you know, was just not doing tolerably, but you
19:09
have PD and my daughter, you can see when she was born, favorite
19:15
days in my mother's life because she had two boys and she wanted
19:18
a girl. Bill, I remember and when my
19:21
mother and when my wife's mother and me had dinner once to tell
19:25
my mother were having her first baby and it was a girl, she was
19:28
like crying and she could finally dress her up in dolls
19:31
and violence. But this is like one of the main
19:34
pictures. You can see it was my mother,
19:37
but so this story is not about me.
19:39
It's about my daughter, my mother and how their
19:41
relationship, you know, how my daughter saw my mother as she
19:45
was progressing and finally, unfortunately to the end, but we
19:48
do it. It is motivational because you
19:50
can see here it's our family at a walk.
19:52
We do a lot of walks and you know, we're still fighting for
19:55
her. But the reason this book
19:57
actually means the most besides the Sun's journey have done a
20:00
lot in between. Those are important, but is
20:02
really again, the children. Even today, it's difficult to
20:05
explain. About Parkinson's or what
20:07
happened to their grandmother. So I'm excited because this came
20:10
out just a week ago It's not easy because again we self fund
20:14
everything but it I just hope somehow it'll get out there in
20:17
the world and again it's not even expensive you know it's
20:21
just hard. I'm even offering a lot of my
20:23
books completely free ebook completely free no cash because
20:27
I just wanted to get out there. So if everyone writes me not the
20:30
kids book yet eventually maybe, but a lot of like my son's
20:33
journey. My mother's will send a free
20:35
ebook copy to anyone who writes to me so that together for
20:38
sharon.com that's. Well, that that's beautiful.
20:43
I, my last guest, wrote a children's book based off of her
20:48
experience. And especially when a children's
20:51
book is inspired by like a real, real person who and your real
20:56
family's experience, I think we often forget how do we, how do
21:02
we, or we don't know how to explain these, these things
21:06
happening. So like connecting through that
21:08
story. That's beautiful.
21:10
I'm going to put a link to it down there.
21:12
Well, so you said, and, and again, I know you're, you're so
21:16
grieving. It's something that you live
21:20
with and grow with. And I, I want to thank you for
21:24
opening up and coming one-on-one.
21:25
I know it's not easy. I know you're in this work every
21:28
day and pushing and and pushing for support and a cure.
21:32
But you know when anyone, anyone comes and sits down and shares
21:38
memories of someone they've lost, I know it's not easy.
21:40
So I just wanted to thank you again for that.
21:44
I would say if you know, we reach even one person that it's
21:47
not even a higher go. But if we just reach one person
21:49
in the world every day and we've reached and touched their life
21:53
for the better and they make sure that they know they're not
21:55
alone. And you asked me earlier, one of
21:57
the recommendation which we didn't have is literally go to
22:00
togetherthesharon.com. A lot of resources, free, no
22:04
charge for any of it. I've interviewed over 3000
22:07
written interviews with people around the world.
22:10
I made a lot of friends and I mean, unfortunately Parkinson's
22:13
doesn't discriminate and I don't want it to.
22:15
But people in Africa, India, Spain, Italy are all affected,
22:20
even Nova Scotia, which is, you know, and even everywhere.
22:24
So I've somehow been able through.
22:26
So for me to reach many people around the world, and that's
22:29
been a big thing. Also have a lot of links to all
22:32
different organizations that offer support that I can because
22:36
I'm just me. But there's a Michael J Fox
22:38
Foundation, the APDA, and the Parkinson's Foundation for major
22:42
organizations. And if they look it up, they
22:44
might even have local walks in their state.
22:46
So there are things out there in support, but it's not always
22:50
easy to find it. So what I did is again, try to
22:52
put a website to bring it to them again free.
22:56
We have been now getting celebrity messages, which isn't
22:59
easy, but we've had messages from Ozzy Osbourne's son because
23:03
Ozzy unfortunately just passed due to Parkinson's.
23:05
We also have Rasheeda Ali with Muhammad Ali's daughter, also
23:10
Brett Favre, the legendary quarterback, and also Bernie
23:13
Kozar. They gave me messages.
23:16
We have a lot of messages from if you go to
23:18
togetherforsharing.com and click on media, then look for messages
23:22
of hope. We have over 30 celebrities and
23:25
it's been a really nice Leah Thompson from Back to the
23:28
Future. So many like I can't remember,
23:31
but it's all again, it's the, you know, they're just short
23:34
messages. One of my favorites is Jennifer
23:37
Garner gave me one, which is really incredible.
23:39
And we donated all the money together to the fire fires in
23:43
California, the wildfires. So, you know, if we're trying
23:46
hard, it's, you know, it's not easy because it's just me.
23:48
I try to be innovative. There's another thing I didn't
23:51
announce them to, I don't want to jinx it, but been trying a
23:54
big problem to the media. It's hard to get them to
23:57
understand how important this is.
23:59
So, you know, that's another area I'm hoping to get.
24:02
But you know, you're right and you're right.
24:04
And even politicians, you're right, you're right.
24:05
And you get the crickets. And some days you feel like
24:08
giving up. But then all of a sudden I see
24:11
another inspiring person or story, somebody, a group of four
24:15
gentlemen who rode around the country to raise money for a
24:18
Parkinson's. And they came on my show.
24:21
And it was such an honor to have a little moment.
24:23
But those are the memories and reasons they don't give up and
24:26
realize even after the lights, Cameron paparazzi, leave even
24:30
your show today, that this conversation has to continue.
24:34
Yeah, no. And I, I can tell you that when
24:37
you're working to draw awareness to A cause, whatever that cause
24:41
may be, and you're going day in and day out and and you feel
24:45
that like, am I really getting anywhere?
24:47
I'll tell you that's when, like you said, somebody comes along
24:51
and you're like, OK, yeah, yeah. Like you just it feels like an
24:55
uphill battle sometimes, I'm sure, but I I think it's moments
24:59
shows doing the books, all the things that you're doing like
25:04
together, right, Hopefully that that creates that ripple effect,
25:09
right. And and no, I just I can
25:13
completely can relate to in a different way, like trying to
25:16
build something and then like being like what am I doing kind
25:22
of figuring it figure that out? One of my books is actually
25:25
called Empty Seat of the Table and what it was about.
25:28
And again, it didn't get much out there, but it's out there.
25:31
And it was about how today I don't have Parkinson's.
25:34
I'm no longer a caregiver of someone living with Parkinson's.
25:37
So I'm kind of in a the third category, which I feel is really
25:41
neglected. And even in the big
25:42
organizations which I brought up, I didn't get far.
25:45
I'm somebody who lost a loved one due to Parkinson's.
25:48
A lot of people don't talk about that.
25:50
And what happens when you don't talk about or have a seat at the
25:53
table is that they don't help. They go on in their life, which
25:57
is fine, but they forget and they move on.
26:00
Maybe they don't forget, you know, they never forget.
26:02
They love them, but they don't advocate.
26:03
And there's nothing wrong with that.
26:05
But I always say I have an empty seat at the table because number
26:09
one, we no longer have a seat for my mother because of
26:12
Parkinson's at our table. And #2 I have had issues which
26:16
we would need a lot more time. And I write, write about it for
26:19
people. Just ignore the people who lost
26:21
someone. They only want to concentrate,
26:23
which is nothing wrong with concentrating on someone
26:26
battling in their families. But you should never forget.
26:28
I feel there's 20 million people or more who've been affected or
26:32
lost someone because they lost their battle.
26:34
But that doesn't mean we don't have a voice or that we still
26:37
don't matter. And that's been a big issue that
26:39
still exists. It's almost like, you know,
26:41
you're could bring all these people back into the
26:43
conversation and be so much stronger that there's nothing in
26:47
my experience, thankfully, now people are learning about me and
26:51
know my goal is just to cure nothing else.
26:54
And you know, we do have exposure now.
26:56
We have been getting, we've had almost every CEO of every
26:59
Parkinson's organization on the show, which was not easy.
27:03
But I, I just wish everybody understood that there's nothing
27:07
I want and they understand now, but except people to work
27:10
together. I mean, I'm always shocked when
27:12
you write to someone and you know, if they're private or not
27:15
out there, that's no problem. But I'll have someone who's out
27:18
there on all these shows and things that won't come on hours.
27:20
And it's baffling because my old show, if you see is just 10-15
27:24
minutes. But I'm promoting them because
27:26
they're inspiring me and I want to inspire the world.
27:28
So we still have an issue too. And it's not everyone.
27:31
It's maybe 1%, but we still have issue with some individuals or
27:35
organizations that just don't really work together and I
27:38
still, I'm kind of not sure why. Yeah, it's like with with media
27:45
and all of the rise of podcasts and everything, it's like, let's
27:50
use these channels to talk about the things that really matter,
27:54
you know, like, not that, you know, you can have Instagram
27:58
food channels and things like art and like, that's great,
28:00
right? But why not give these causes
28:04
and these feelings and these this adversity that people
28:08
around the world are going through.
28:11
This is the place to talk about it right?
28:14
To that that draws people in, that gets people to actually
28:17
take action that that actually moves the needle.
28:21
But it's it's quite frustrating when when, when you know, people
28:26
are kind of focused on, on the wrong things.
28:30
I always am very honest and nothing too high and I you know,
28:34
I encourage to Oprah, if she's listening to come on branch, I'm
28:39
with me. You know, people like Oprah and
28:42
Tamron Hall and you know, all the big the good, you know, Good
28:45
Morning America. I've read into them all and they
28:47
just don't respond. And then I see other stories and
28:49
Parkinson's, unfortunately, again, is one of the fastest
28:52
growing neurological diseases in the world.
28:55
And I kind of I don't want to say the word shake because we
28:57
that's what Parkinson's individuals like my mom did.
28:59
But I almost feel like I have to like kind of, you know, get them
29:03
awake the day. It's just very hard.
29:06
And it's, you know, like Katie Couric and so many people out
29:09
there that could put a huge light and maybe they have with
29:12
others. But I haven't seen that kind of
29:14
story or even in my first book about my mother son's journey.
29:20
There's no one else. And I always challenge everyone
29:22
listening to write me if I'm wrong.
29:24
But I haven't ever seen a son who loves their mother do the
29:27
Parkinson's book about anywhere in the world, and I couldn't.
29:30
Also, I have to sell publish because a lot of the publishers
29:33
just don't care. Right, right.
29:36
Yeah, it's, well, I mean, it looks like you have certainly
29:41
not let anything help you as far as like the impact you're
29:45
making. And I just want to commend you
29:46
like I know you're not in it for this at all.
29:49
I can feel that from you and but I do think that you deserve some
29:54
some applause at least from me. And I want to give that to you
29:58
for really just diving in and like what you're doing has the
30:05
ability and is already really affecting people in this
30:10
community. I would send that back to you
30:13
because it's individuals like you who give us the spotlight
30:15
for a moment or the time and realize it's important.
30:18
And so I'd also thank you for that.
30:21
And you know, again, without voices like you or support and I
30:25
really couldn't make a difference.
30:27
So and also, I don't think I would do all this or be the man
30:31
and today if it wasn't for my mother and the thing she taught
30:33
me and the sacrifice that she had.
30:36
So again, I kind of joke with my wife and family and say law
30:40
school, I almost quit police Academy, literally almost go to
30:43
study for the bar in the account.
30:45
That was interesting class. And then the PhD took seven
30:48
years. I almost quit that at every
30:50
single stage that I walked down to graduate my mother.
30:53
I have a picture of her next to me and that's you know the tough
30:57
part and even hard to still talk about because she can't be there
31:02
for my daughter and for her grandkids, which is what she
31:05
actually told me that she was fighting for her to be at my
31:08
daughter Brooke's wedding one day.
31:10
And I only regret I have ironically is back 5-6 years
31:14
ago, we didn't have no one had podcasts.
31:16
I didn't have the technology. I wish I could have done a show
31:19
with her for a few years, but not about Parkinson's, just
31:21
about stories and life. Because I could have had all
31:24
those incredible clips, like of us arguing Sunday about what
31:30
restaurant to order from because we would fight over what food to
31:32
get. And now Sunday comes and it's
31:34
just, you know, quiet. It's not the same.
31:36
So that's the one thing I wish I had.
31:39
It wouldn't have been possible till today, but I would have
31:41
dreamt of having and it's tough because I have a small family
31:44
and I can't get any of them to come on the show.
31:46
But it's not, you know, we don't have many of our family now.
31:50
We're growing because my kids. But it would have been fun to do
31:53
a, you know, show with her. Well, I, I can tell you that no
32:02
doubt, no doubt she is, though you don't have that recorded.
32:07
I will say, like even you just saying those memories and the
32:11
book and just what you're doing and like how you are advocating.
32:17
I mean, it seems like you've been helping people that are
32:21
struggling kind of your whole life with, with police work with
32:27
this, with, I mean it victim advocacy.
32:30
It's a really, it takes a really special person to do what you
32:34
do. And I, I know I'm not, I don't,
32:37
I'm just showering you with compliments.
32:38
But I, I think that you are probably in the grind trying to
32:43
do so much that it can be easy for you to forget how much
32:46
you've done. You know what I mean?
32:48
And they say there's 2 rules and I've broken them both. 1 is
32:52
yeah. And this is AI recommend
32:54
everyone out there. I didn't.
32:55
I'm a hypocrite I guess. But take care of yourself first
32:58
as the first one of the caregiver cuz then you can't
33:00
really take care of your loved one #2 is even as an advocate I
33:05
don't I do this 24/7 which is not smart.
33:07
But I just pains me to see other people, you know battling it.
33:11
But you're not supposed to do this what I'm doing.
33:13
So it's not. I even joke with my kids because
33:16
they see I was you know doing 3 careers like police law and
33:19
you're only supposed to do 1 stuff.
33:21
I worry about them in the future.
33:23
But you know, you don't have to do all the stuff I do.
33:25
You can be your own person. Everyone has a journey.
33:28
Even just one thing, one post a day for free.
33:31
You could change the world. So that's the biggest message I
33:34
think I might have. It's a beautiful message and I
33:37
think like just to kind of bring it in here, everything that
33:42
you've been talking about the, the thread through that I think
33:45
is community through adversity, right?
33:49
Like whether you're advocating for victims in Florida, whether
33:53
you were working with the you are a reserve police officer now
33:57
with together for Sharon and your advocacy, all of that, that
34:02
thread is community is connecting through that pain,
34:07
right? And like you, you're very
34:08
honest, like being honest about what you're going through.
34:11
If you're struggling as a caretaker, if you need help, if
34:14
you, there are resources thanks to organizations like yours and
34:18
all the the organizations you're partnering with, you know?
34:22
We only touched on the surface of this so much, but like, I
34:26
wrote another book, which again, I don't want to write books.
34:29
I don't even want to do a lot more.
34:30
I just wish we found a cure and then that would be done.
34:33
But until then, I can't. And I wrote one for my heart,
34:37
which is about the lack of awareness and law enforcement
34:40
throughout the country dealing with people with Parkinson's or
34:44
encountering. And what that was is actually
34:46
more. I put my PhD hat on, cap on, and
34:49
I did a book. It's two sections really.
34:51
One is about law enforcement if people don't understand how you
34:54
become an officer, but the opposite is for police.
34:57
So I've given 5 lectures in my own department and they've been
35:00
incredible support. It's hard to get it to the
35:02
others. So again, I hope everyone out
35:04
there pick up a copy or e-mail me for a free ebook copy of
35:08
Policing and Parkinson's Disease.
35:10
But if they if everyone listening and even one person,
35:13
every state would try their Police Department and urge them
35:16
to learn about Parkinson's. Right now.
35:18
A lot of the research I found I don't want to kind of give away
35:21
unless they read the book because it's a lot of
35:23
interesting thing. But a lot of people with
35:25
Parkinson's fear the police, which shouldn't be because
35:29
they're worried about what they would say or do if they're
35:32
having a trauma or their medicine isn't kicked in.
35:35
The other thing is, I'd say most police never heard of
35:38
Parkinson's, and at least in Palm Beach County, and when I
35:41
was in the Academy in Miami-Dade County, they mentioned the words
35:45
Alzheimer's of dementia. But Parkinson doesn't exist.
35:48
So again, we don't expect police to know everything about
35:51
everything, but even just knowing the word.
35:53
So my dream would be I tried to reach out to representatives to
35:56
have every Academy in Florida and everywhere in the country.
36:00
So that applies to every state and every organization to add
36:04
the words Parkinson. That's it, nothing else.
36:06
If they just did that, we would be OK.
36:08
But they haven't done it. And I don't really know at this
36:11
point. So I could hit a wall and we
36:13
just got to keep trying. But I have to move forward.
36:16
But, you know, my department bought 300 books, donated to the
36:19
entire city, fire to the community so that people are
36:23
aware now. And if an officer, you know,
36:25
encounter someone, they might think a moment before.
36:29
Also, sadly and positively, from sadness comes positivity.
36:33
But they just passed something called the blue envelope law,
36:36
and it's spreading very positively around the country
36:40
that was created for autism. So people with autism who
36:43
encounter police, sadly, I believe in my research, it came
36:47
about because somebody lost their life doing an encounter.
36:51
And I feel that that's going to happen, unfortunately, with
36:53
Parkinson's until somebody does something.
36:56
And I don't want to be on, you know, Oprah or any of those
36:58
shows talking about this when it could have been prevented.
37:01
But unfortunately, in my view, it's just me, not for him.
37:05
But or the show is until something sadly happened badly.
37:09
That's what it takes, you know, in our country before movement
37:13
occurs and people do something about it.
37:16
Yeah, there's so many, there's so many aspects to Parkinson's
37:23
disease. After talking to you and before
37:26
I, I read about it and knew the the basics.
37:30
But when after talking to you, I'm realizing with Parkinson's
37:34
in particular, the, the, the person suffering, there's so
37:41
many different situations. It's not just kind of getting
37:44
them OK, make sure you get to your doctor's appointment and
37:46
take your meds. It's a lot of life changes and a
37:52
lot of adjustments and life changes for the people around
37:55
them. But what you're working to do,
37:59
obviously the goal is to get to get that cure, right?
38:03
In the meantime, while we're working towards that, it's like
38:07
you're trying to offer, which I think is amazing, the education
38:10
to all these different types of people, organizations.
38:13
You're trying to look at all the situations that sounds like that
38:16
your mom went through or some that you were just aware of, and
38:20
you're trying to provide the education to prevent, to prevent
38:24
that or teach people the coping skills to handle it, right?
38:27
And the science is interesting because although I'm not an it's
38:30
only degree it into is MD, my father.
38:32
But I tried picking up a book about political science because
38:39
I do teach that I'm like I can't be a student again.
38:41
But I do learn every day from every student I meet.
38:45
But the problem is interesting. It's not even like we all say
38:49
cure, cure, but we don't. We can't even get to a cure.
38:51
First step is the science and research has to figure out how
38:55
to stop the progression for people battling today.
38:58
But they could stop it and then maybe even kind of in a way
39:01
reverse it. That would be the two first
39:04
things. Only then can we even get to a
39:06
cure. So we're that's why it's
39:08
important to dimension, which we did.
39:10
And another book we have on sports and exercise, because
39:14
that's the only there's no cure. But we wrote a book and this was
39:17
an interesting book. I don't want this to become the
39:19
book show, but I mean. When you've written 8 books, you
39:22
got to talk about. Them this one was interesting
39:24
because what I had in mind it's not as easy because say what
39:27
company of the day. I don't like what I did, but I
39:30
had an idea. My mother struggled and she
39:33
likes sports which ceremony she couldn't do.
39:35
But guess what she couldn't do 1 So she kind of just gave up.
39:38
Never try. But what we did is we put a book
39:41
together. It's called Sports and slowing
39:43
the sports and exercise slowing the progression of Parkinson.
39:47
I gathered 20 people battling Parkinson's and advocates around
39:51
the world had them each do a chapter on a different sport and
39:56
what I was trying to and also they put on Amazon themself and
39:59
they gained all the money. I didn't accept anything, which
40:02
is not easy because again, just a disclaimer, this is not again,
40:06
Brianne, I'm saying this about Amazon.
40:08
But they didn't understand what I was doing because they
40:10
thought, well, you know, how could you have 20 authors?
40:12
But that was my goal was that they would all be able to fund
40:15
it and get medication money or help support them that want the
40:19
money. So every single week cover about
40:21
30 different. Sports from bowling to ping pong
40:25
to Rock City boxing to, you know, Bath to all different
40:29
sports, just to show from the voices of those battling it that
40:33
just because one sport doesn't work doesn't mean there's not
40:36
another one. You don't want to.
40:37
You can't give up. You have to find something.
40:40
So hopefully and again someday, we're actually working on
40:43
getting that on an ebook for free too, so.
40:47
We gotta help with that. No, no, you're just your goal,
40:50
your heart. You wanna get it out there, but.
40:54
A joke. If I win the lottery, I'll be
40:56
sending a copy around to every hospital, every physical
40:59
therapy, all the medical world for free that I can't afford it.
41:05
I don't play. I don't play the lottery, so I
41:07
don't think that's going to. Happen well, that's how you know
41:09
you're you're you're cool when you're like, when you're first
41:11
thought about winning the lottery is how can I help other
41:13
people like because you've, I think, and, and please correct
41:17
me if I'm wrong. When you've seen the types of
41:21
adversity that you've seen, I think probably throughout,
41:24
you've seen with law enforcement, with, with all
41:26
sorts of situations and people you've met and people you've
41:29
taught adversity, I think, and, and loss like this, it, it
41:36
changes you, right? You, you seem like you have a
41:40
desire to help. That is just a core part of who
41:43
you are after. This particular probably was
41:46
before, but after losing your mom that that really became your
41:52
life's work, right? Helping people.
41:54
Yeah, I mean, I don't get into a lot, but a lot of what a reserve
41:57
is is I swim through the full police Academy.
41:59
But I never got paid. So I actually did it in 2006.
42:03
I've actually put a vest the gun on, didn't get a penny.
42:06
Could have been, you know, bad stuff could happen and not no
42:09
insurance, nothing. So, you know, my mother never
42:12
liked that honestly, and I understood why, especially now.
42:15
But you know, like I said, I really wanted to.
42:17
I didn't do it for anything but to help the community.
42:20
I always said the same thing with Parkinson's.
42:22
I almost kind of correlate them sadly, but because a lot of the
42:25
Parkinson's population I feel is forgotten and so are victims,
42:28
all of the different, you know, field.
42:30
But I just wanted one victim, even if I could change their
42:33
life to know people care. That was it.
42:36
But you know, putting on a vest gun, going to a full Academy,
42:39
you're paying yourself and then opening yourself up to diary bad
42:43
stuff. And it's obviously a lot of good
42:44
too. For free is not anything.
42:46
I don't talk a lot about it, but I've never had a penny actually
42:49
was supposed to give me a dollar for every year I was a headache,
42:53
but I would donate it back. But you know, that was an
42:56
interesting career and I would do it again, but maybe not in
43:00
certain areas or states because it's happening.
43:03
But again, you have to. Sometimes you need to give
43:06
sacrifice to help others. And that was one thing I'm still
43:10
most proud of, even though, again, very not the smartest
43:13
thing to do, I guess. But and my mother, again, she
43:16
didn't like it. Every time I put everything on
43:18
the best and went out, she was worried I wasn't going to come
43:21
back. Imagine too.
43:23
And the shocking thing is, I didn't have any medical
43:25
insurance, so something happened.
43:28
Who knows? Thankfully, it didn't.
43:32
Well, George, you know, I, I know we can spend lots of time,
43:37
hours and hours and I think your podcast as well on actually
43:42
diving into all of these really, really important issues and
43:45
facets of Parkinson's disease and the people that it affects.
43:49
So again, I want to encourage everybody in the show notes, the
43:53
links to your podcast, to all of your books right down below your
43:59
Instagram as well. And George, before we go is and
44:03
again, this has been really, really educational helpful for
44:06
me. Is there anything that you just
44:08
want to kind of wrap up with and leave the audience with?
44:11
And and this will be the first of many connections.
44:13
I you're now in the adventures and adversity family.
44:16
So like, you're going to get sick of me, you know, so that,
44:19
but just to tie. This one, I would say that to my
44:23
Co host and my Margaret, she said never.
44:25
But I like, you know, every time we see right, like right now in
44:29
Pennsylvania, they're actually finally getting to Congress to
44:32
ban Paraqui. It's a first state.
44:34
So it's A and whenever I see an article or something, I contact
44:38
the legislate. I don't contact Margaret.
44:40
I contact her after and say I'm trying to get these people on
44:42
the show. It's very hard, you know, to get
44:45
government people. I've been said no by senators
44:47
Congress. I tell them their own
44:49
constituents are battling bargains.
44:51
They can't give me 3 minutes. Like it's shocking and I don't
44:54
want to continue because we could, like you said, go for
44:56
hour. But in my book, empty seat at
44:58
the table, I actually, and I say his name, but I wrote I wrote to
45:03
my 2 senators at the time, Rick Scott and Marco Rubio.
45:07
Rick Scott took the time, came on my show.
45:09
It was like a dream. Imagine having AUS senator do
45:12
the show for Parkinson's. Unfortunately, Mark or Ruby, and
45:16
again, I don't know if it was him, but his staff, he didn't do
45:18
a good job and I put it in the book and I don't mind the suit
45:21
or he's a public figure. I can get into defamation.
45:23
But he his staff actually wrote me and said the Parkinson's is
45:27
literally in the book from their e-mail is not really as
45:30
important to them right now. World matters.
45:32
I'm like I wrote back and said my mother matters and so do all
45:36
the people battling today and I was really sick and really, you
45:40
know, there's different people in the world and there's nothing
45:42
wrong with how people react. But if when you slam the door on
45:45
my face, I'll usually try to find another way in or kick it
45:48
back open because you can't just give up again.
45:51
We can't bring my mother back, but we can't stop this for
45:54
others battling. And that's really why I do it.
45:57
I get a lot of weird things sometimes saying, you know, why
46:00
am I doing it? Because again, I can't bring her
46:02
back. And this is too good to be true.
46:04
But in 2026, it's sad that somebody just wants to help
46:08
people and still gets interesting.
46:10
But whenever I wrap up my show, I always leave everyone with
46:13
this. Now, this is to Brianne, to you
46:16
and to your viewers. We love you, we support you, we
46:19
care a lot about you, and you're never alone.
46:22
I, along with Brianne, will advocate for you and I feel
46:25
together. Our voices are so much stronger.
46:27
And I always wrap up the saying, I'm just getting started because
46:30
although I've been doing it for six years, on those days,
46:32
whether it's politics, everyone's own health or just,
46:36
you know, the weather today or, you know, whatever it is, or
46:39
maybe again, some days it's like I can't bring her back, my
46:42
mother. So why even keep doing this?
46:45
We spent so much in my family. Sometimes even is upset because
46:49
I do so much, you know, I'll miss out.
46:50
My mother would have laughed if you met her and said, George,
46:53
don't do all this, Spend time with your family.
46:55
But she knows I wouldn't just give up.
46:57
But every time I meet Someone Like You and your audience or
47:01
somebody inspiring to me doing something, it pushes me to
47:05
realize that we can never give up till there's a cure at
47:08
everybody's doorsteps around the world.
47:11
Well, beautifully said, George, beautifully said.
47:14
And I'm honored to be standing next to you.
47:18
I am now anyone who comes on my show, their cause becomes a part
47:23
of my cause. Honestly, like I'm really
47:26
honored. I I think what you're doing is
47:29
incredible and yeah, you are just a shining example of, like
47:35
you said, how to not give up adversity.
47:39
And I just think it's a beautiful thing what you're
47:41
doing so. Thank you and thanks for again
47:45
to the listeners for allowing us the time to talk about this
47:49
important and really fast growing disease throughout the
47:53
nation and the world. So I feel through each voice we
47:56
can make a difference. Contact your legislators about
47:59
banning things like Paraqui, the things they put in our foods,
48:03
the the, the landscaping, just things that I feel we're not
48:07
doing enough about. And together they'll listen.
48:10
But me sending a letter every month for 15 people, like kind
48:14
of sometimes I'll breakthrough get one response or others, but
48:17
I feel if we all flooded them together, they would listen.
48:20
Thank you again. Yeah, Amen to that.
48:24
Well, with that, please take a look at the beautiful resources
48:27
in the show notes. We want to be a part of finding
48:30
a cure. And until next time, George, we
48:33
will be in touch.