Boxers in a brightly lit Calgary gym, lunging gloved fists at punching bags, aren’t training for an amateur three rounds or the championship distance of 12 rounds. They’re fighting against a lifelong opponent – Parkinson’s disease.
“You can either give up, give in or give it all you’ve got,” he said. “It’s almost like cancer patients who focus on their cancer as if they’re beating it up, as if they’re destroying it and that visualization gives them more power over their cancer.” Mr. Grant, who retired as an emergency physician and transport doctor with Alberta’s air rescue service because of the disease, said the class pushes him mentally and physically beyond his limits but, perhaps more importantly, gives him hope and a sense of community. It’s a space where he doesn’t have to meet judging eyes who don’t understand why he’s wobbling or shaking.
Marcela Jaimes works with participants living with Parkinson's disease during the Grizzly Strides boxing program.“There’s an understanding that exists between the people that are in this program where you don’t have to explain why you’ve got dyskinesia and why you’ve got a tremour and why you’re having a bad day.”