Parkinson's Fighters: Riet & Marcel

“It isn’t always easy if your partner has Parkinson’s disease. He needs a lot of care and hence I need to cut back on my own needs. This is of course something I happily do for my love but that doesn’t take away that it can be really hard. Sometimes I get angry when he is stubborn and doesn’t want to do his movement exercises or forgets his medication. As a result he has more symptoms and needs more care. Then I would like to launch him into outer space! But of course that doesn’t help either. The most important is that I stay healthy so that I can take care of him. Not only the patient suffers from the disease – it is the whole family that goes through this together.”