How I learned to live positively with YOPD

Essential reading for caregivers, advocates, friends and family—and the most extraordinary gift of hope for anyone, of any age, diagnosed with Parkinson’s.

A Parkinson’s diagnosis at any age can land like a grenade at your feet. When serial entrepreneur and lifelong optimist Blake Bookstaff was diagnosed with YOPD at age 47—he tries to block out the news, before a tailspin into heartbreak, depression and despair.

Today, years later, Blake feels more positive than ever about Parkinson’s disease, the incredible medical interventions he’s been blessed to receive, and ultimately his own future—learning, as he does, that a cure is tantalisingly within reach.

In this inspirational book, written with warmth, honesty and humour, Blake gives an insider’s account of the early years of his diagnosis, what helped him most, the actions to take first, and the mistakes to avoid. The book aims to accompany those newly diagnosed on the path to acceptance, and help relatives understand the emotions their loved ones are going through.

Follow Blake’s story as he tells friends and family, gains an all-important support circle via the World Parkinson's Congress, and meets world-renowned doctors and specialists like Dr Okun (National Medical Director for the Parkinson's Foundation and author of Living with Parkinson's Disease).

Soon Blake is amazed to find “hope from all angles,” catapulting him into a new chapter of positive action, from drug research and "doctor shopping" to joining boxing classes for Parkinson's patients and occasionally standing on one leg (don't ask!) You’ll also learn:

• How to find the right doctor for you (and how to be the best patient for them)

• How the most common frontline drugs work, and how it feels to be on them

• How to invest in your future wellbeing and keep something positive on the horizon

• What exercises you can do, right now, to train motor skills and retain balance

• What Blake learned about the disease, drugs and treatment options from meeting world-leading movement disorder specialists, and from visiting state-of-the-art clinics, conferences and “the most advanced center in the world for treating Parkinson's”

Half-memoir, half self-help guide—with an inspirational foreword contributed by NBC host Willie Geist—Blake's book is a refreshingly honest, open-hearted account of what life with YOPD is really like, and a hope-filled invitation to the reader—not to be defined by Parkinson's, but to live fully in spite of it.