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You can help stop Parkinson’s disease

Advancing groundbreaking research to help improve the lives of millions of people diagnosed with Parkinson’s and other debilitating conditions.

Every day, 50 Australians are diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.

There is no cure, yet.

Your donation today can accelerate life-saving medical research for Parkinson’s disease and other debilitating conditions.

Parkinson’s disease is the second most common degenerative brain disease affecting Australians
200,000 Australians live with Parkinson’s disease today
Up to 50 Australians are diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease every day
10-20% of people diagnosed with this condition are under the age of 50 – Young Onset of Parkinson’s disease
One Australian is diagnosed with this debilitating disorder every 28 minutes

Sheenagh was diagnosed with Young Onset of Parkinson’s at age 47

“When I told people I had this condition, I received the ‘but you’re too young to have Parkinson’s’ line.

No one really understood what Parkinson’s disease was or the impact it would have on my life, but everyone was very sad I had it. I am a nurse by training, and I didn’t know much about this dreadful disease either.

Sadly, most people think it’s only an old person’s disease. I want to shift the paradigm about how anyone can develop this debilitating disease, even you or someone you love.”

After diagnosis, Sheenagh tried different types of medication over the years until her doctor found one that kept her symptoms under control.

Sadly, for more than 70% of people living with Parkinson’s disease, the available medication isn’t effective* as it begins to wear off within a few hours and stops controlling their symptoms.

More medical research into neurodegenerative conditions like Parkinson’s is urgently needed to better understand these illnesses.

Your support will enable WEHI’s researchers to leverage their long-standing fundamental research strengths in inflammation, cell death and the role of ubiquitin signalling, to develop new precision drugs to stop Parkinson’s.

Your donation today will help our researchers better understand why and how Parkinson’s and other degenerative brain diseases develop and find better diagnostic tests and more effective treatments for diseases that affect the lives of millions.

A photo of Sheenagh with her family, taken in a garden with an historical stone wall behind them
Sheenagh and her family

Other ways to donate

To make a credit card donation by phone, please call +61 3 9345 2403 (9am to 5pm AEST).

To donate by cheque, please download this donation form.

If you would like to make a donation via bank transfer, please call our Fundraising team on (03) 9345 2403 or email us at fundraising@wehi.edu.au

To request donation envelopes to use at an event, please contact us on 03 9345 2403 or fundraising@wehi.edu.au.

US supporters can donate via the Chapel & York US Foundation, nominating The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research as a recipient.

Donations to WEHI of $2 or more are fully tax deductible.

Your personal information

The personal information you provide via this form will be used by WEHI to process your donation, to issue you with a tax receipt and to send you future communications and updates. You can opt out of receiving marketing correspondence from us at any time. We will not disclose personal information about you to anybody else, unless you have given consent, or we are authorised or required to do so by law.

Please see our Privacy Policy for more information about how we handle personal information including who to contact if you have a privacy enquiry.

Parkinson’s disease research at WEHI

The Parkinson’s Disease Research Centre at WEHI is a collaborative, multi-disciplinary initiative to develop early diagnostic markers and precision medicines to improve health outcomes for people with Parkinson’s disease.

Grant Dewson is photographed working in laboratory

Data sources

Header image: Sheenagh Bottrell, WEHI consumer living with Parkinson’s disease and her husband, Andrew Bottrell.

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Illuminate Spring 2024
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