A Nurse Changed Everything
Parkinson's UK continues to show us what real care looks like.
This new film, released as part of their national Nurse Appeal, drives a multi-year fundraising campaign to address the dire shortages of specialist Parkinson’s nurses across the UK. Tailored to social media, this piece comes to us with first-hand stories from people living with Parkinson’s, showing the critical difference a nurse can make - and the consequences when care isn’t available.
PUK's goal is ambitious: to raise £9 million over three years to fund 25 new nursing posts, alongside training for allied health professionals and clinical fellows. It's clear to me that, even from an initial viewing, this film is slated to be a key part of this effort. It's charmingly unembellished, and its emotionally resonant to camera/interviewer confessionals are deliberately understated. This is a film concerned only with the lived experience.
We hear directly from people whose lives were upended by the disease: a mechanic who feared he’d lose his business, a mother fighting to work while caring for children, another forced to move house just to have a chance at care. “It felt like I was looking into a black hole. With no information, no one to talk to.”. Parkinson's itself will forever be frightening because of its slow, unrelenting march. However, what's perhaps more unsettling is the idea that people in the shadow of this disease - and others like it - might have to move homes in an attempt to increase their chance of assistance. That is something I did not know I would see in my lifetime, and that I now know it shows how important the style of messaging in films like this continue to be.
Only when a Parkinson’s nurse enters the frame does any kind of light return. This is someone who understands before the words are said, who offers advice when others have none, to medicate in time, to hope alongside.
The film is modest in form: slow crossfades, natural lighting, and minimal soundtrack keep the focus on the human voice. The tone tips over into the confessional, and is all the better for it. There’s a rhythm to the script: it begins in isolation and fear, moves through daily struggle, then shifts into moments of real human connection. The introduction of the nurse halfway through the film is a subtle midpoint structure used in storytelling for millenia, but no less pivotal - it’s the turning point in each and every story. N
An urgent and measurable appeal
This video is just one part of Parkinson’s UK’s Nurse Appeal, which aims to support 25 new Parkinson’s nurses, 30 allied health professionals, and six clinical fellowships over three years. Right now, around 30,000 people in the UK regularly miss out on the specialist care they need. £36 funds an hour of Parkinson's nurse time, and just £15 provides follow-up support. Crucially, all donations are being matched pound-for-pound.
There’s no gimmick here, just lived experiences plainly told. It’s the kind of storytelling charities once shied away from, either fearing it won’t hold attention or relied precariously on execution. But Parkinson’s UK knows what it’s doing now. This is work that respects the audience as much as the subject.
Minimalism grounds the campaign’s emotional appeal in sober realism rather than sentimentality, and it's this sober rationale that pushes us to reach for our wallets. And as we reach we know that it's the least we can do, and still not enough.
