An interview with Artur Amich on advocacy and Published Author on October 3, 2023 by George Ackerman, Ph.D, J.D.
Biography
I was born in Barcelona in 1966 into a humble family.
My values and virtues, highlighting among them willpower, the spirit of improvement and his ability to adapt, helped me advance in the academic world.
I opted to continue learning while working, joining the demanding Arthur Andersen auditing firm in September 1990. I started a family in 1993 and remained “an Artur in the world of Arthurs” until March 2016, when I was forced to abandon his professional career at Deloitte (merged in 2002 with Andersen) because of Parkinson’s disease.
Please tell me a little about your background.
A disruptive and totally unexpected event cut short my life forever in January 2014, at the age of 47. Parkinson’s disease, as unknown as it is wild (chronic, degenerative, still incurable), make me live what I define as a second life.
Far from giving up, I began a fierce race to document, understand and be able to address my illness face to face, which I affectionately call a “monster” .
In August 2016, I created the personal blog conviviendoconelparkinson.com, where I undresses and writes from the heart about my coexistence with the disease, as a personal therapy and to share and help other people, to spread the reality that exists more and better to society, hides behind the stereotype of Parkinson’s.
Today my blog includes 200 articles, and exceeds 100,000 direct visits and, possibly, is one of those that contains the most information about this disease.
As part of my objective of spreading and sharing the disease, I appeared on TV programs (one with Josep Cuní , another with Javier Cárdenas) and on Catalunya Radio and Cadena Cope. I starred, together with another Parkinson’s patient, in an initiative called Fair Play for Parkinson’s that is the subject of an interview and brief report by Barça TV at the Nou Camp and of photographs with the president of Real Madrid at the return of our football classic (classic that was the reason on which said initiative revolved).
Can you tell me more about your advocacy?
Participated in the first workshop of the “Open Innovation in Parkinson’s Disease” program, organized by the Hospital de San Pau, the Open University of Catalonia (UOC) and the GMV Innovation Group Solution.
Participated in several phases of a project called Maspark with which the former Parkinson’s Unit of the Teknon Medical Center in Barcelona has been working since 2015 to analyze the effectiveness of a technological device (sensor) that allows the motor symptoms caused by Parkinson’s disease to be monitored and automatically recognized.
What is your passion and how did you get involved in Parkinson’s awareness and hope for a cure?
Since the beginning of 2017 I have been involved in a project called Fox Insight; is an online clinical study where people with Parkinson’s disease and their loved ones periodically share very detailed information that could transform the search for better treatments.
And since January 2017, I also participated in a research project that allows me to access very exhaustive monitoring by one of the specialists attached to COPPADIS . This follow-up lasted about 5 years.
My spirit as a tireless fighter lead me to complement my blog by creating, editing and publishing several books:
Parkinson’s, now what? by Gent i Terra (2017),
Face to face with the monster, by Editorial Kurere (2019)
https://www.editorialkurere.com/producto/cara-a-cara-con-el-monstruo/
I presented these two books at various events and in various spaces (in the paraninf of the Clínic de Barcelona, Col.legi de Censors Jurats de Comptes de Catalunya, Terrassa library, Castelldefels library, etc.).
On July 14, 2020, I published my third book with Grupo Planeta , a self-help book, about emotional improvement, called “Controlling the Uncontrollable.”
https://www.planetadelibros.com/libro-controlar-lo-incontrolable/319247
What would you like to see as a future goal for your programs?
On July 2, 2017, due to my interest in spreading the word about the disease, the CAN ROCA RUNS charity race (in Castelldefels) decided to donate the proceeds to the Catalan Parkinson’s Association of Catalonia, whose objective was to improve the quality of life of patients of Parkinson’s.
On April 19, 2017, I was interviewed in an article signed by Carmen Escales from Periódico de Catalunya.
The printed edition of La Vanguardia on July 16, 2018, published an article titled Every minute, every second signed by Susana Quadrado and that day it gave me “a green traffic light”.
In 2018, I was concerned with researching international initiatives that aimed to specifically address the needs of Parkinson’s patients when they are newly diagnosed. The First program was informed Steps, which the non-profit organization Parkinson’s UK launched two years earlier and collaborated with the Catalan Parkinson Association so that it later launched a program called Parkinson Plus.
What events do you participate in?
On the celebration of World Parkinson’s Day (April 11), I created and developed the initiative consisting of an annual walk in the city of Castelldefels (Barcelona), which I named “Canal Olímpic Walk for Parkinson’s”. A free, solidarity walk to disseminate and raise awareness about the disease, with a length of about 2,650 meters along the inner perimeter of the Olympic Canal of Catalonia. Two stages were held (April 2018 and April 2020) with increasing success in terms of the number of registered participants and the third had to be canceled due to the alarm situation due to the health crisis derived from the COVID19 pandemic. We punctually count on the generosity of Luis Suárez to publicize the event.
How can someone get in touch? What is your website?
They could write something I the “Comentarios (Comments)” of my blog or website
Parkinson Y ahora qué? – wordpress.com
https://arturamich.wordpress.com/
How can others also become advocates for awareness?
In July 2019 the Col.legi de Censors Jurats de Comptes de Catalunya awarded to me an award “to people at the service of the group.”
In October 2019, we organized three workshops within the national meeting held by Unidos contra el Parkinson, which were successfully held on the 25th of that month in the province of Barcelona.
It currently appears on the Hospital Clínic website, (PortalClínic ) as one of the voices of the Parkinson’s patient.
I’m a kind of “ambassador” of Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson Research and I was a part of the ADVOCACY Committee that collaborated in the organization of the World Parkinson Congress (WPC) that was held in the city of Barcelona in July 2023.
I participated as a Parkinson’s patient in the 2019 edition of the XPatienteBcnCongress .
In April 2020 I was part of a focus group (organized by Clínic de Barcelona and by ( AQuAS) whose objective was to identify the information needs about COVID19 that patients with chronic diseases have had.
I’m currently a member of the Catalan Association for Parkinson’s and FAGA (Families of Alzheimer’s and Other Dementia Patients of Gavà)
YouTube channel and a Facebook page called Living with Parkinson’s. On Linkedin I have a stellar profile and almost 1,500 contacts.
Bruce Springsteen is my musical reference and two of his songs are my motivators: No Surrender and Waitin ‘ on a Sunny Day.
My values and strengths developed in my first life help me differentially to be able to continue in his second life, because I love life and need to continue being an actor and not a spectator, recording or broadcasting podcasts on Advancing together on spreaker.com, enjoying the sun, from the sea, from the air, from every minute, every second…
When I lack strength, my support and my most important network emerge: my wife and two children.
I broadcasted 50 weekly programs from the international radio station called RADIOPARKIES_SPAIN, a radio program with music and interviews. I interviewed neurologists such as Ray Dorsey, Bas Bloem, Todd Sherer, Francesc Valldeoriola etc.
I attach a link with an example of the interview with Dr. Bloem:
Check out ” Radioparkies_Spain ” on Mixcloud:
As a result of my deterioration process because of Parkinson’s disease and freezing of gait and the large number of movement fluctuations that I suffered both during the day and at night, I decided to have surgery in March 2022 and now I have improved my symptoms thanks to the deep brain stimulation that they implanted in me at Clínic Barcelona.
In January 2023, I published my fourth book with Grupo Planeta “Desire to live” from Click Editions (January 2023):
Universo de Letras – Ganas de Vivir
How can someone get in touch? What is your website?
They could write something I the “Comentarios (Comments)” of my blog or website
Parkinson Y ahora qué? – wordpress.com
https://arturamich.wordpress.com/
If you had one final statement or quote you could leave for the Parkinson’s community, what would it be?
The cure is getting closer……all together we will achieve it!!!!!. No surrender, never give up!!!!