When Anna Grill was first told she had Young Onset Parkinson’s Disease, she kept the diagnosis to herself. The wife and mother of then 9- and 7-year-old daughters was an active, fit 30-something excelling in a full-time career she loved. She was the youngest member of her mostly male leadership team at work, president of the PTA at her daughters’ school, happily married to her high school sweetheart and – to be honest – she was just too busy to let her diagnosis slow her down. Medications were successfully masking her symptoms and as long as no one else knew, she could continue to make a name for herself based on her ambition and achievements – not her diagnosis.

Sometimes denial is the safest place to be.

But as is the case with most secrets, eventually, it catches up with you. Carrying the weight of this diagnosis while fighting off symptoms was physically and emotionally exhausting. Human nature instills in us a need to share the ‘big’ news of life so that we might surround ourselves with the support of others. Anna not only felt the effects of Parkinson’s but the isolation of going it alone.

Here's her story...