Bryn Williams was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease in September 2007, aged 36.  He works as a Patent Attorney for Marks & Clerk and lives in Glasgow with Vicky and their two wee girls.

Previous Blogs
03/02/2010Bryn's Blog :: Genetic Footprint
26/01/2010Bryn's Blog :: Burns
24/01/2010Bryn's Blog :: GAA
14/01/2010Bryn's Blog :: Nice!
10/01/2010Bryn's Blog :: Let The Running Commence
31/12/2009Bryn's Blog :: 2009
25/12/2009Bryn's Blog :: Christmas
16/12/2009Bryn's Blog :: Denial
07/12/2009Bryn's Blog :: A Clothing Catastrophe
02/12/2009Bryn's Blog :: Dinner Chat
23/11/2009Bryn's Blog :: Pretty Dull
08/11/2009Bryn's Blog :: Black Tie
29/10/2009Bryn's Blog :: Residentail School
24/10/2009Bryn's Blog :: Running & Frustration
15/10/2009Bryn's Blog :: Difficult Pink or an Easy Brown?
07/10/2009Bryn's Blog :: Munich & Nurses
02/10/2009Bryn's Blog :: Wonderful
22/09/2009Bryn - How to run 13 miles in 1 hour 34 mins
16/09/2009Bryn - Blisters
07/09/2009Bryn - Two years on
04/09/2009Bryn - Ireland's Wobbly Walk
22/08/2009Bryn - 100th Blog Entry
20/08/2009Bryn - A laugh
14/08/2009Bryn - Nurses!!!
03/08/2009Bryn - Majorca Again
14/07/2009Bryn - Belfast Telegraph
07/07/2009Bryn - Growing Hair
27/06/2009Bryn - Mudwrestlers
18/06/2009Bryn - Cheater!
13/06/2009Bryn - Fat Blokes
01/06/2009Bryn - Great Glen Way
17/05/2009Bryn - Guinea Pigs
08/05/2009Bryn - Dummies
29/04/2009Bryn - Brains (and lack of them)
22/04/2009Bryn - Fake Tan
15/04/2009Bryn - Pain
08/04/2009Bryn - Drugs Chat
01/04/2009Bryn - Taken a Break
18/03/2009Bryn - Blues
11/03/2009Bryn - Three Years
03/03/2009Bryn - Reunion
25/02/2009Bryn - That is not my dog!
18/02/2009Bryn - Jokes
10/02/2009Bryn - Snow
03/02/2009The Drugs DO Work.
28/01/2009Appointment
26/01/2009Cockroaches
20/01/2009Wedgie
14/01/2009Stop Sniffing!
06/01/2009Darts
31/12/20082008
30/12/200855 Minutes and 29 Seconds!
24/12/2008Is That A Banana In Your Pocket?
16/12/2008Margo
10/12/2008Connections
02/12/2008Bi-Stretch?
26/11/2008Comments
25/11/2008Another Rant
18/11/2008Concert
11/11/2008Parkies
06/11/2008Pyramid Walking
27/10/2008At Least Two Years
21/10/2008Kermit
14/10/2008Bonanza
08/10/2008Great North Run
04/10/2008ITV
29/09/2008Feel Wick Daddy!
22/09/2008West Highland Way
14/09/2008The Calm Before The Storm!
08/09/2008Great Scottish Run
06/09/2008One Year On
02/09/2008Up Yours!
26/08/2008Music
18/08/2008Confidence
13/08/2008Holiday
28/07/2008The "cause"
24/07/2008Dear Bryn
21/07/2008Darts
14/07/2008Medals
06/07/2008Good Vibrations
27/06/2008Start Spreading The News...
16/06/200857 Minutes and 53 Seconds!
10/06/2008Strange Habits
02/06/2008Le Camping
25/05/2008Amputation
20/05/2008Plunge
18/05/2008After Manchester
13/05/2008Before Manchester
09/05/2008Talk, talk, talk
04/05/2008Agonising Over Agonists
27/04/2008Blazing Saddles
21/04/2008Aviemore
13/04/2008Cholesterol
06/04/2008Dog Poo
01/04/2008Symptom Free?
28/03/2008Four Parties and a Funeral
25/03/2008Embryo Debate
24/03/2008Mouse Cured of Parkinson's
20/03/2008Caravan
18/03/2008Wobbly Williams
09/03/2008Bore
24/02/200810K
17/02/2008Elie
10/02/2008Dinner Party
02/02/2008Questions
27/01/2008Brief Comment
19/01/2008First Visit To Consultant
15/01/2008Elephant
13/01/2008New Trembles
10/01/2008Many Questions
02/01/2008New Year
30/12/2007Christmas
04/12/2007Yoga Blocks
17/11/2007Fitness
08/11/2007People with Parkinson's
31/10/2007Better
24/10/2007Hard Times
15/10/2007Progress?
08/10/2007Mountain Biking
01/10/2007Exercise
24/09/2007Rapid Onset?
17/09/2007In the beginning
 

Reproduction of Mr. Jelly character image is reproduced by kind permission of THOIP (a Chorion Limited Company). All rights reserved. http://www.ilovemrmen.com/

Since April 2008 we have raised
£106,223
for Parkinson's Disease Charities!
Click here to sponsor the Team
Wobbly
Wobbly
Latest
Jokes
Bryn's Blog
Voluptuous Vicki
Tom Isaacs
Old Scientist
The Doc
Slice Of Life
The Flying Flynn
The Fake Shake
MASH
The Professionals
Photos & Video
Awareness
Awareness
Events
Wobbly Walk
Pirates 4 Parkinsons
WobbleAid
Running Team
In The Media
Background
Background
About Us & Contact
How I deal with PD
How it Started
About Parkinson's
Books
PD Glossary
Links


03/02/2010 Bryn's Blog :: Genetic Footprint
 

I gave my presentation for the John Logie Baird awards earlier in the week.  I entered this innovation award on the premise that Wobbly Williams is a bit different to other organisations that raise awareness and raise money because we avoid the doom and gloom and try and use a bit of humour to break down the barriers non-wobbly people put up when faced with a difficult subject of a young person having Parkinson's disease.  The presentation involved me talking for 10 minutes couple which was followed up by 10 minutes of questions from a panel.  Simon Cowell has a lot to answer for.  A more grumpy bunch of people you would travel a long way to find, I think they struggled to accept that dealing with adversity through constant giggling is innovative.  Before I went in to the presentation I had a look at the previous winners in my category (Social Enterprise) and, frankly, with regard to innovation, the bar isn’t high.  Take for example last year's winner, the Scottish Seabird Centre.  If it had been based in Stirling then I would have accepted that is innovative.  But locating it next to the sea can hardly sit in the same bracket as inventing television like Mr Baird did.  Allegedly.  "Let's build a tourist attraction right here beside the sea where there are lots of seabirds.  What shall we call it?".  They probably got a consultant in.

I received my pack from "23 and me", the company founded by Sergei Brin of Google, who has the Parkinson's gene, to get my genetic code analysed to see what other medical dilemmas are ahead of me.  I could spawn a whole range of websites.  Sergei is recruiting as many Parkies as possible to see if there are any genetic similarities that have been missed.  It will be interesting to see how they measure my carbon footprint from a test tube of gob.  Or is it genetic footprint?  Or genetic fingerprint?  Not sure.

Speaking of my carbon fingerprint, we did our bit for depleting the ozone layer by driving to Great-Aunt Ailsa's funeral in Leeds in higher gas guzzling Honda.  It really doesn't like to pass a petrol station without at least popping in for five minutes.  It is a tortuous journey along the A65 from Kendal to Rawdon where the cremation took place.  It was a lovely occasion, there was sadness because she will be missed but much happiness because she was a wonderful lady who left lasting impression on many that she met.  It was good catching up with long lost cousins and aunties and, especially, Uncle Colin who has taken over Ailsa's calendar making duties and raised a significant sum for Parkinson's research with his first attempt.

Gareth spotted a sign combination on the way into the crematorium which caused much hilarity.  Beneath the sign at the gates of the crematorium which says "Rawdon Crematorium" is another one which says "One Way Only".  Truly brilliant.

WobblyWilliams.com got some good PR this week with a two page spread in the health supplement of the Daily Record.  The article was written by a very sympathetic journalist who took a lot of time to listen to what I had to say and reported it brilliantly.  The article is here.  The health supplement has a contents page which lists my article under the heading "Lawyer Gets Hit By Parkinson's".  I bet the majority of the Record readers said "Good. F***ing parasites".

We went to the indoor athletics at Glasgow's Kelvin Hall this weekend.  I have always fancied going to an athletics meeting and it is cracking fun.  Our seats were next to the pole vault and every time a vaulter launched himself in the air, Rebecca would squeal and cover eyes.  How do you learn how to pole vault?  Do they start off with small poles and work their way up to the full-length ones?  Surely there must be a certain length a pole has to be before it will bend.  It must be quite terrifying doing that first jump.  I have been thinking about this for three days and still can't get my head around it. 

I remember Billy Connolly telling a Chick Murray joke about a pole vaulter turning up at the gates of the Olympic village with his pole up in an enormous pole shaped suitcase.  The security guard asks "are you a pole vaulter?",  The athlete replies, "No I am German and how did you know my name vas Valter?".

Previous entry
Next entry