CityViews With Muhammad Ali's Daughter Sheds Light On Upcoming Parkinson's Unity Walk

NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- In this edition of CityViews, Sharon Barnes-Waters sheds some light on the upcoming 23rd annual Parkinson's Unity Walk.

The walk, organized by the Parkinson's Alliance, is the largest grassroots fundraiser for Parkinson's disease research in the country.

It kicks off this Saturday, April 22 in Central Park.

Sitting down with Barnes-Waters to tell us more about the disease and the fundraiser is Maryum "May May" Ali, daughter of the legendary boxer Muhammad Ali, Carol Walton, executive director of the Parkinson's Unity Walk, and Bettina Chavanne, a Parkinson's patient.

"My father, being an optimistic person, that was his nature, but it really served him with PD. But he had his ups and downs also," Ali says. "And I think the biggest message with him is he lived his life with Parkinson's. He had Parkinson's, Parkinson's didn't have him."

They also talk about the power of connecting with other patients and increasing awareness.

"A lot of people who I've met that are my age don't talk about, because they're worried about losing their jobs, or some stigma attached to it, or maybe they don't have a supportive system," Chavanne says. "So I was really lucky in that the community I was in was naturally inquisitive and supportive."

Parkinson's disease is a chronic, degenerative, neurological disorder that affects more than one million people in the country.

To learn more about the Parkinson's Unity Walk and how you can help, visit www.unitywalk.org.