Often, after one of my more energetic blogs, people write to me and say “You’re amazing, Ali!” I thank you for the compliment. It gives me a warm glow, but trust me, I’m only bite-size amazing.
For one thing, I am rubbish at controlling any kind of sticky tape. It sticks to everything but the intended surface and then, when I return to it, I can’t find the little corner I turned over. Expletives are a regular soundtrack to my gift wrapping. I know I’m not the only one.
Meet Jagdeep Singh Aujla (If this link doesn’t open try the LinkedIn link below). He is truly amazing. Here’s why.
Mechanic: He can take a bike to pieces and pack it without vital little pieces rolling off into the garden. Wow, just look at him go with that parcel tape! I bet he doesn’t swear at it.
Warrior: Jagdeep has lived with Parkinson’s since 2021. Like me, he is a passionate advocate for the benefits of exercise in managing symptoms and delaying disease progression. Ready to share with others, Jagdeep has trained as a boxing instructor and established the Dopamine Warriors Boxing Club in Essex (motto Never Give Up the Fight). It’s not just the boxing. Writing letters and grant applications, organising venues, catering, insurance, health and safety, fundraising, lobbying, press interviews…there’s lots to do, and somehow he gets it all done.
Communicator: In my career as a writer and editor, I worked on a lot of health information, turning complex doctor-speak into plain English that answered patients’ questions and helped them make informed decisions. I was pretty good at the words, but I could never make it look pretty. Jagdeep keeps up to date with research, and has the skill to pick out the best bits and create beautiful infographics in English and Punjabi. He’s a whizz at social media.
Advocate: Here in the UK, it’s easy to join the daily grumble about our ailing National Health Service. We panic – does our local branch of Boots the Chemist have enough Sinemet to take us round till next Tuesday fortnight? In some countries, such as Uganda, people have no access to Parkinson’s at all and live in a permanent ‘off’ period. Some are even outlawed from their villages branded as witches and demons.
Jagdeep has been to Uganda to see for himself, visiting the Parkinson’s Si Buko (Parkinson’s isn’t Witchcraft) community run by Kabugo Hannington. Hannington teaches people how to recognise the signs of Parkinson’s, challenge myths, and support families. You can read more about Si Buko on Jagdeep’s GoFundMe page.
Adventurer: In 2022 Jagdeep and his daughter Japleen climbed Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, raising more than £10,000 for Parkinson’s UK. In 2024, he trekked the 150-mile Annapurna Circuit in Nepal, raising more than £4,000. Now, as I write, he is a member of a team cycling more than 500 miles from Seattle to Phoenix where the World Parkinson’s Congress (WPC 2026) is being held from 24–27 May. This huge international gathering takes place every three years in different venues across the world. Jagdeep is an Ambassador representing the UK. He’s raising funds to share equally between Parkinson’s UK and Si Buko.
When Jagdeep arrives with his team from the west, there will be competition for the bike sheds as other adventurers arrive from different directions. Captaining a team coming in from Chicago on route 66 is Bill Bucklew, who I last met in 2021 in a layby outside Inverness, running on his way south from John O’Groats. Bill has tackled many long-distance challenges since then. Just like Jagdeep he has raised awareness and mahoosive amounts of money. He, too, I regard as top-level amazing.
Scotland 2021 – l-r Robin, Bill Bucklew, me, John McPhee
photo: Yvonne McPhee
Home sweet home
Am I going to Phoenix? Are you kidding? It’s hard enough to drag my weary bones from Bury St Edmunds to Twickenham, especially when my carefully spreadsheeted itinerary is torn up by ‘replacement bus service between Clapham Junction and Richmond’. And even if I could pedal there under my own steam, there are three days of talks and socialising at the Congress itself. At any conference, you can guarantee, as soon as the lights go down and the Powerpoint goes up…oops! dropped off again! By the time I wake, Jagdeep and Bill will be packing up their bikes for the homeward trip.
The foothills of amazing
I would love to stand on the shoulders of these giants, but I barely reach their kneecaps. I’m just pottering around in the foothills of amazing. That’s fine with me. If any of the small things I do or say help you in your own quest to be fit, and delay your Parkinson’s progress, I’m happy. And you, in your own special way, can be amazing for someone else.
Play > By the time I get to Phoenix > Glenn Campbell
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