4 friends with Parkinson's disease cycling across the country to raise money for research
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Four friends set off on a journey of a lifetime on Wednesday, cycling across America while raising money for two Parkinson's disease foundations.
Chicago-area organizer Bill Bucklew is always on the move, and he is using the trip to show how to confront life's big challenges.
"I've run over 40 marathons, done 11 different triathlons. I've climbed Mount Kilimanjaro. I've walked across Great Britain. I've walked across the United States," he said.
Each is a significant physical feat, and Bucklew has done them with Parkinson's – a progressive neurological disease that causes tremors, slow movement, and problems with balance.
"I learned that exercise was the one thing that could slow the progression. So I started just going nuts on exercise and doing all sorts of crazy adventures, and it gave me a purpose," he said.
Since being diagnosed at the age of 43, the now 55-year-old has become an exemplar of what's possible with Parkinson's.
"I'm not comfortable running anymore, so there are two alternatives. I could just sit down on a couch at home and just think about things, or I can get out there and try something. And try something turned out to be a bit of a pun, because I ended up with a tricycle," he said.
Bucklew's next big adventure is his first on wheels. He and three friends, who all have Parkinson's, will attempt to cycle some 4,000 miles from Virginia to San Diego – each logging about 70 miles a day for 65 consecutive days.
"I'm excited to see how many miles I can put on this in the next couple of months," he said.
"As everybody says, exercise is medicine, and it's a very potent, healthy medicine," said Dr. Daniel Corcos, an exercise neuroscientist at Northwestern Medicine.
Corcos literally wrote the book on the impact of exercise on people with Parkinson's and said the science is clear: getting your heart rate up can slow down the progression of the disease.
"It is true he might take a little longer than if he didn't have Parkinson's. It is true it may take a little bit more effort, but at the end of the day, I can see no limitations, and the people I meet who do best are those who are quite convinced they have no limitations," Corcos said.
But for Bucklew, it's not necessarily about having no limitations. It's about finding the opportunity in the limitation.
"If you can't run, walk. That's what I did. I started doing. When I can't walk that well, I'm going to ride. I tell you what, if I can't ride in a couple years, I'm going to kayak or something, right? There's always some way," Bucklew said.
It is a way to keep pushing forward, the only direction worth moving in.