Editor’s note: Tammy Corrigan was diagnosed with young-onset Parkinson’s at age 50. She wrote this piece together with her husband, Frankie Corrigan.
Tammy Corrigan: Every morning, Parkinson’s disease reminds our family that life has changed.
For me, that can mean waiting for medication to kick in before my feet will cooperate enough to walk. It can mean tremors, muscle rigidity and dystonia that causes my toes to curl painfully inward. It can also mean something most people never see: overwhelming anxiety that persists even with medication and intensifies as my medication wears off. It’s one of the hardest parts of the disease for me.
Frankie Corrigan: For me, it means watching the person you love struggle with something you can’t fix.
There have been mornings when I’ve watched Tammy crawl to the bathroom because her body simply wouldn’t do what she was asking it to do. One person gets the Parkinson’s diagnosis, but an entire family learns to live with it.
Tammy: I was diagnosed with young-onset Parkinson’s at just 50 years old, although my symptoms began years earlier.
I first saw a neurologist in my 40s; I was told I was too young to have Parkinson’s. I wasn’t.
Like many people, we assume Parkinson’s is a disease of old age. However, early-onset Parkinson’s disease cases are increasing.
Today, more than four years after my diagnosis, I take medication throughout the day, stay active, box twice a week to slow the disease’s progression and I refuse to let Parkinson’s define my life.
But one question continues to follow our family:
My father also has Parkinson’s disease. We both spent years living in the same West Valley City neighborhood. My father and I underwent genetic testing to see if there was a genetic component to our Parkinson’s diagnosis. There was not. It has made understanding possible environmental exposures even more important to our family.
After we began sharing my story publicly, other families connected to that neighborhood reached out to tell us about their own Parkinson’s diagnoses.
The Utah Department of Health is now evaluating concerns about a possible Parkinson’s cluster in the neighborhood I grew up in.
We don’t know what investigators will ultimately find. We may never know exactly why I developed Parkinson’s.
But we do know something else.
Tammy and Frankie: Scientists have identified environmental exposures that increase the risk of Parkinson’s disease. One of the strongest and most consistent links is to paraquat, one of the most toxic herbicides still used in the United States.
Some studies have associated paraquat exposure with Parkinson’s disease, along with other serious health harms, including cancer, thyroid disease, impaired kidney function, childhood leukemia and non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Because of those risks, more than 70 countries have banned paraquat — including China, where much of it is produced.
Think about that for a moment.
Even the countries that manufacture paraquat have decided it is too dangerous to use. Yet it continues to be sprayed here in the United States.
And here in Utah.
Protecting public health should be the priority when credible scientific evidence points to serious risks.
We can’t change Tammy’s diagnosis.
We can’t get back the years Parkinson’s has taken from our family.
But we can fight to make sure fewer families have to ask the same questions we do. Utah has an opportunity to lead.
The two of us — along with many others — urge state lawmakers to support legislation banning paraquat and protect communities, farmers and farmworkers from unnecessary exposure to this dangerous chemical.
This isn’t about politics. It’s about protecting people.
We hope our son grows up in a Utah where fewer families hear the words, “You have Parkinson’s disease.”
If banning paraquat can help move us toward that future, then it’s time to act.