The Voice of Southwest Louisiana April 2018 Issue

SWLA nonprofit
www.eljayfd.org
Eljay Foundation for Parkinson's Awareness,
Inc. - Changing Lives Together
The Eljay Foundation was founded in 2000 in an
effort to promote awareness for Parkinson's
disease and fundraise to help find a cure while
supporting its member patients.
Our mission is to inform whole communities
about Parkinson's disease and build community
partnerships that provide resources and non
clinical support services to improve the quality of
life and access to care for every person affected by
Parkinson's disease by linking them to points of
services.
Our goal is to improve the quality of life of every member
ensuring they know they are not alone.
We host an annual health fair each August, as well as
monthly support group meetings in Lake Charles and
Orange, Texas. We also partner with Hope Therapy to
provide Rock Steady Boxing(R), a national non-contact
program designed to help build muscle, stamina, balance,
and tenacity.
The name Eljay comes from a combination of my
parent's name. My dad is Jay, and my mom's name is Ella.
My dad, Eligha "Jay" Guillory was diagnosed with Parkinson's
disease in 1983 at the age of 38. However, he had seen signs
and experienced misdiagnoses for six years prior. He passed
away in 2012 after living with Parkinson's disease for over 30
years.
The Eljay Foundation aka the Parkinson's Foundation
was founded out of a need. As a family, we had difficulty
researching information on Parkinson's disease and several
professionals even lacked solid information. Since we
experienced that problem, we figured we were not alone.
We dedicated ourselves to ensure patients and families, as
well as the community, were well informed on Parkinson's
disease, its affects, and prognosis.
Parkinson's disease affects approximately 1.5 million
people in North America. An estimated 2% or two in
one hundred Louisiana residents (60,000 people) have
Parkinson's disease. An estimated 2,000 Southwest
Louisiana residents is diagnosed with Parkinson's. You
cannot die FROM Parkinson's disease, however until a cure is
found, most likely you will die WITH it. Parkinson's is also the
14th leading cause of death in the US.
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April 2018 WWW.THEVOICEOFSOUTHWESTLA.COM Volume 5 • Number 9