SCOTTSDALE — A Scottsdale man who was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease seven years ago is finding a new purpose in life after his symptoms recently got worse.
At the age of 34, Mike Ziomek got a diagnosis that would change his life forever.
“My wife just noticed a twitch in my finger. I didn’t think much of it. She’s a nurse and she was like, oh you may as well go get that checked out,” said Ziomek.
That twitch turned out to be Parkinson’s Disease, though the symptoms were still barely noticeable with no medication required. That all changed this last year.
“The big thing is your life is... the way you look at it isn’t what you had planned. So you got to kind of write your own narrative to how you’re going to handle it,” said Ziomek.
Now, at age 41, Ziomek is choosing to write his own narrative. His new project, the Shovel Crew Foundation to Bury Parkinson’s Disease, is aimed at raising awareness, advocacy and money for research.
They are fundraising through events at different venues like movie theaters, where on Saturday, they screened Back to the Future. A portion of those proceeds are going to Team Fox, actor Michael J. Fox’s grassroots effort for research funding.
“They just had this huge breakthrough last year on isolating the gene, and all of that comes from support of grassroots foundations and people like myself and my supporters,” said Ziomek.
He says around 1% of the population has confirmed Parkinson’s Disease, but some may be undiagnosed and struggling. He hopes what he is doing now, however new it may be, will go a long way in the fight he never expected to be in.
“With this charity, with this foundation, it has given me a new purpose in life and a new focus in life because I want to help as many people as I can to know that it isn’t over, the world isn’t going to end, the sun’s going to come up tomorrow, we just got to make the best of it,” said Ziomek.
