The Movers and Shakers handing in their Parky Charter to 10 Downing Street on World Parkinson's Day 2024

Every year we think “Wow, that was the best World Parkinson’s Day ever!”, and then the next year comes around, and the global Parkinson’s community exceeds our expectations once again. And World Parkinson’s Day 2024 was certainly no different.

From an advocacy campaign that captured headlines across the world to milestone events, successful fundraisers, and Parkinson’s communities coming together to enjoy music, sport and dancing, here are our global highlights from World Parkinson’s Day 2024:

Worldwide

1. Lighting up landmarks for Parkinson’s

Once again, beautiful buildings across the world were lit up to mark World Parkinson’s Day, and in 2024 there were an array of colours raising Parkinson’s awareness: the UK, US, Italy and Canada lit up blue, in Spain it was red, Australia turned its landmarks purple and in Denmark it was green.

(See more Australian landmarks lit up purple for World Parkinson’s Day 2024 here)

2. The “Sit to Stand” challenge

Once again Stand Up To Parkinson’s hosted a global exercise challenge, encouraging people around the world to collectively complete 2 million “sit to stand” exercises for Parkinson’s awareness.

 

EUROPE-WIDE

3. Parkinson’s Europe launches Summer Of Sport

We were blown away by the response to our new video showing the power of everyday people with Parkinson’s taking on a new sport and finding a sporting community they can enjoy belonging to. Watch the video below and find out more about what’s coming up in the Summer of Sport.

UK

4. The Movers and Shakers take their Parky Charter to the UK Prime Minister

After amassing over 20,000 signatures on a petition supporting their Parky Charter, the hosts of the Movers and Shakers podcast (including TV presenters Jeremy Paxman and Rory Cellan-Jones, and comedy writer Paul Mayhew-Archer) presented the charter to 10 Downing Street, home of the UK Prime Minister:

 

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5. Parkinson’s UK takes over Picadilly Circus

After a week-long digital campaign called There Isn’t One Parkinson’s Journey, featuring moving and enlightening videos telling the stories of a range of people living with Parkinson’s, Parkinson’s UK then took over the Picadilly Lights billboard at London’s Picadilly Circus during the evening of World Parkinson’s Day 2024 with a short film and over 100 photographs of people with Parkinson’s:

6. Brunel University releases new Parkinson’s psychotherapy research paper

The study investigated whether a type of psychotherapy called compassionate mind training – a form of mindfulness – could enhance the well being and quality of life of people with the condition, with results showing that the therapy helped fight against the stigma that is often felt by people with Parkinson’s:

Spain

7. Parkinson’s Walking Football tournament between Spain and the UK

This friendly tournament for World Parkinson’s Day took place in Bilbao, Spain, with the Spanish side up against the England national Parkinson’s football team:

8. FEP launches “Reivindiquemos la Inteligencia Emocional” campaign

Launching the campaign with a moving and thought-provoking video, “Reivindiquemos la Inteligencia Emocional” aims to encourages a more humane approach to Parkinson’s, valuing the emotional skills we possess to tackle the condition in a more personal, empathetic way. Find out more on the Inteligencia Emocional website.

Germany

9. The Berlin Symphony Orchestra play at the Yuvedo Foundation’s World Parkinson’s Day 2024 event

As the stunning video below shows, the World Parkinson’s Night concert was special indeed. The event was also attended by the German Minister for Health Karl Lauterbach.

Ireland

10. First-ever national audit of Parkinson’s care in Ireland published

This milestone study was eagerly welcomed by the Irish Parkinson’s associations, including our Member Organisations Parkinson’s Ireland and EOPD.IE:

11. Parkinson’s Europe Vice President Gary Boyle by FutureNeuro

Portugal

12. Young Parkies Portugal launch new Parkies At The Table series

In this video series, a chef, an expert and a member of the public sit down together over a meal to discuss Parkinson’s, encouraging a wider conversation on the condition throughout Portugal, removing stigma, and sharing delicious recipes from Portuguese chefs at the same time! The first episode is now live on YouTube.

The Netherlands

13. Parkinson Vereniging’s annual World Parkinson’s Day conference

Highlights of this event included a poem read by Peter van den Berg, who lives with Parkinson’s (you can read the poem here), and Dutch neurology professor Bas Bloem and ParkinsonNet’s Marten Munneke both receiving a prestigious “koninklijke onderscheiding” (royal decoration) award.

Switzerland

14. Parkinson Schweiz hold World Parkinson’s Day 2024 conference in Lugano

The event (which you can see a video interview from below) took place at USI in Lugano, with over 100 people in attendance, and there was also a large turnout at the Lido where various sporting activities took place.

Croatia

15. Double-event at both Zagreb and Rijeka

Our Member Organisation, Parkinson i Mi, held  dual events at two locations – Zagreb and Rijeka – in Croatia on World Parkinson’s Day, including awareness-raising, an art workshop, lectures and dancing!

There’s lots more photos and videos on their Facebook page.

USA

16. PD Avengers host 24-hour Spark The Night livestream

Hosted by Larry Gifford, the live-stream featured inspiring interviews, music from Grammy-award-winning artists, and powerful documentaries.

17. Research paper gives a new theory for the origin of Parkinson’s

Released on World Parkinson’s Day, this new research paper from the University of Rochester, USA, puts more emphasis on the possible environmental causes of Parkinson’s, such as pesticides, air pollution and contaminated food and drinking water.

Australia

18. Shake It Up Australia campaign raises $21,000 on World Parkinson’s Day 2024

The Australian organisation’s fundraising activities on World Parkinson’s Day took their monthly total donations so far to over $150,000.

New Zealand

19. Cure Parkinson’s NZ releases feature-length documentary “1 in 37”

Telling the personal stories of five people living with Parkinson’s in New Zealand, this hour-long film was released on World Parkinson’s Day, and can be viewed in full below:

Kenya

20. Milestone event takes place in Kenya

This first event of its kind was hosted at the Mama Grace Onyango Social Centre in Kisumu County, featuring experts, caregivers and people with Parkinson’s coming together as a community to raise awareness.

You can see more photos from the event on Facebook.

EDIT: Even more World Parkinson’s Day updates!

Since publishing this article, we’ve heard from even more wonderful Parkinson’s organisations about their World Parkinson’s Day 2024 activities. Here’s a few more highlights to inspire you for next year:

Slovenia: Društvo Trepetlika Press Conference

In Ljubljana in Slovenia, Društvo Trepetlika held a press conference, during which its young member Egon Pahor presented his Parkinson’s story with a short video. Then Prof. Dr. Maja Trošt, Dr. Grabljevec, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Dejan Georgiev, Slavko Stošicki (a person with Parkinson’s) and the President of Društvo Trepetlika, Cvetka Pavlina Likar, spoke about the strategy of the Association. This included the group rehabilitation that is now legalised in Slovenia, the activities carried out by Društvo Trepetlika, and about the problem of financing associations like theirs, which are the extended arm of the healthcare system and are extremely important for people with Parkinson’s. The conference was well attended, well recorded and had a great response among journalists and the public.

Belgium: Action Parkinson

As part of Action Parkinson‘s World Parkinson’s Day activities, they held some movement workshops hosted by Arnold Massart, Chairman of the Rhythm Department at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, and Magaly Bartholomeeusen, Head of Occupational Therapy at CTR-Erasme. You can see just how much these sessions were enjoyed in the video and photos on the Action Parkinson’s Facebook page.

Belgium: Vlaamse Parkinson Liga

Werelddag parkingson 2024

The Flemish Parkinson League (Vlaamse Parkinson Liga) held its annual World Parkinson’s Day (Werelddag) conference at the ICC in Ghent, including informative lectures, the latest updates on Parkinson’s research, and musical performances from the Ghent Madrigal Choir. As you can see from the photograph above, the event was very popular, with over 650 people in attendance.

There were hundreds more World Parkinson’s Day events taking place across the world – we were grateful for every single one of them. Browse more events on our Parkinson’s map or on social media using the hashtag #WorldParkinsonsDay.