Winter 2022
Winter 2022
Ray Dorsey comes to Summertown
Martin Cowell
In early September I had a message from Helen Matthews, Deputy CEO of Cure Parkinson’s. She was very keen to interview Ray Dorsey, co-author of Ending Parkinson’s (and who along with Bas Bloem contributed to our successful webinar in February 2021), whilst he was in Oxford, for a documentary being created by Rob Hayworth about Guy Deacon’s epic journey from Freetown to Cape Town.
Guy Deacon
Guy has Parkinson’s, and having retired as a colonel from the Army in 2019, he has been travelling overland to fulfil a lifetime's ambition and demonstrate that the condition need not stop you undertaking such activities or stop you pursuing your dreams. Working as an ambassador for Cure Parkinson’s and Parkinson’s Africa, the film of his journey will show him meeting many along the route who also have Parkinson’s and letting them tell their stories to a world-wide audience.
Editor’s note: You can read more about Guy's journey and his fundraising in an article written by former BBC technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones at this link on his blog, which also has many other fascinating Parkinson’s-related items.
What Helen was missing was a venue to film the interview with Ray – so I stepped in and offered our kitchen/diner, which as turns out has the sort of natural light from above that the film-makers would normally have to use a £30k camera to provide! Paul Mayhew-Archer joined me for the morning, and we also fitted in a Zoom with Omatola Thomas, Founder and Director of Parkinson’s Africa. As well as being incredibly tall, Ray is also charming, and a very accomplished interviewee. Most of his responses were filmed in a single take, and film-makers Rob and Jack were delighted – as were we all, as I hope this happy picture shows!
