The team of Coxy's Long Walk have been overwhelmed by the support they’ve received since arriving in the Central West on their 400km walk from Sydney to Dubbo for Parkinson’s - with even the smallest of villages giving generously.
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The fundraiser is in aid of Shake It Up Australia for Parkinson’s research and every dollar raised will be matched by the Michael J Fox Foundation, so suddenly $20,000 becomes $40,000.
Monday was an opportunity for group to relax in Mudgee, having unfortunately gone from five members to three with Brad and Narelle Floyd succumbing to injury. None-the-less, David "Coxy" Cox said the walk has been a touching experience.
It really has been touching and heart-warming to see the generosity of these people – it has been the highlight for this trip for me and I think for all of us.
- David "Coxy" Cox
“It’s been very tough physically on all of us, I think we were pretty fit before we started and it’s been at least as tough as we expected – maybe a bit tougher. But we’re going well and the spirits are good, albeit with Narelle and Brad in particular being nastily injured,” he said.
“Once we got this side of the Blue Mountains the generosity has just kept increasing, there have been a lot of really wonderful examples of that.
“In Portland we were almost chased by one lady who saw the orange shirts and stopped us to give us cash – she had a relative who had Parkinson’s. There was a farmer in between Lue and Mudgee who spotted us walking along the road past his farm and crossed the paddock on his quad-bike to see us and donate.
“The Royal Hotel in Capertee put on a trivia night for us and raised $1,000 from the locals, which was amazing, and at Ilford we stayed at the community hall and they put on a barbecue for us and all chipped in.
“It really has been touching and heart-warming to see the generosity of these people – it has been the highlight for this trip for me and I think for all of us.”
Mr Cox was formally diagnosed with Parkinson’s five years ago, having had it for an estimated eight years, and medically retired in January 2017.
He believes the disorder is more widespread than what the numbers say and counting himself as lucky that he’s one of the 20 per cent who don’t have the “big shake”, there was a reason behind making this fundraising event a walk.
“The exercise was one of the reasons I chose this, because it’s absolutely the best thing Parkinson’s patients can do, and it highlights the importance because I feel better as a consequence,” he said.
“The statistics say that there are currently about 80,000 people living in Australia with Parkinson’s, but I think there’s more based on my experience, possibly north of 100,000.
“I’ve met a lot of people along the way who’ve got a father who was diagnosed, a sister, grandfather, uncle – there are people everywhere.
“It’s the second most prevalent neurological disorder behind dementia and Alzheimer’s. It touches a lot of families and a lot of people.”
Donate online to Coxy's Long Walk at donate.grassrootz.com/shakeitupaust/our-fundraisers/coxys-long-walk
