When Jennifer Andrewes was diagnosed with Early Onset Parkinson’s, she decided to start walking – and she hasn’t stopped
This story was originally published on May 14 2025. Since this story was published Jennifer has gone on to write another book, which went on sale in March 2026 called The Only Way is Up: On Foot to Rome.
Five years ago, at age 48, Jennifer Andrewes was diagnosed with Early Onset Parkinson’s Disease. That’s what it’s called when someone aged between 21 and 50 receives the diagnosis. About 5% to 10% of people with Parkinson’s experience early onset.
Affecting an estimated 10 million people worldwide, Parkinson’s is a neurological condition that is incurable and progressively debilitating. It’s linked to declining levels of dopamine – an important chemical messenger involved in reward, motivation, memory, attention, and the regulation of body movements.
Jennifer, a Wellingtonian, had known something was wrong around three years before the diagnosis, when the tremor in her left hand started. “I thought there was something going on, but I didn’t want to deal with it.” She tried to think about it as little as possible.
“By the time I saw the neurologist, the diagnosis wasn’t surprising. I knew already. I’d had maybe three years to get to grips with the idea.”
However, the confirmation still shook her. “I was upset. I was angry. I was anxious. I was depressed. But I was young. I had a family, career, life, plans. I wasn’t interested in being told what I could and couldn’t do.”
Her sons Oliver, Tomos and Nicholas were 18, 15 and six at the time. “I didn’t want to upset them, so I was quite matter of fact about it. The oldest hasn’t said much about it, but has been really caring. The second one had loads of questions. The youngest was like ‘okay, what’s for dinner?’. I’ve always been very open with the boys about it.”
How did her husband Stephen deal with it? “Really calmly and supportively. I’m quite pragmatic and he has the ideal approach, which is ‘keep living your life and we’ll do whatever we need to do to enable that’.”
Jennifer prefers to call it a condition, not a disease. “Not because it changes what it is, but because it changes the way I think about and handle it – as something that I live with and manage.”
She is determined to stay in the now, and stay as positive as possible. “Maybe I’ve been in denial. Maybe there’s a bit of Pollyanna in me. Maybe there’s a bit of ‘just suck it up’. I’ve had certainly moments where I’ve thought ‘this isn’t fair’, but I’ve never actually cried about it. I’ve never felt super-angry about it. It’s just ‘well, this is a pain’.”
The symptoms of Parkinson’s vary from person to person. “Some people don’t have a tremor. Some people have the uncontrollable movements, or the freezing.” That’s when you suddenly and temporarily lose the ability to move.
‘Motor symptoms’ include a resting tremor or constant shaking, slowed movement, rigid muscles, a stooped posture, and balance problems. Non-motor symptoms can include gastrointestinal issues, anxiety, apathy, sleep disturbance and more.
Jennifer’s main symptom is the tremor in her left hand, which comes with pain, and muscle fatigue. “It affects your microcontrol. So youmight choose food that you can eat with a fork in your right hand. If I’m doing a presentation, I don’t always have the reliable microcontrol to press the keyboard.”
“And when that tremor is going on on the outside, things are going on in the inside, too. It’s like your body is in a spin cycle in the washing machineand you just feel discombobulated. I’ll be talking through brain fog – not that aware of what I’m saying and certainly not capable of providing cogent advice or making decisions.”
Medicines help control the symptoms.
The first step
Upon diagnosis five years ago, her first neurologist told her she might have five good able-bodied years ahead. “I thought ‘I’m quite keen on more than five years actually!’ My neurologist’s blunt advice was a wake-up call: life is short, mobility isn’t guaranteed, and if there were things I wanted to do, I shouldn’t wait.”
Exercise, he said, was one of the few proven ways to slow the progression of Parkinson’s. “Putting one foot in front of the other every day felt like a simple positive action to keep moving forward – literally and metaphorically.”
Jennifer started reading books by people who’d delayed the progression of their neurological conditions by walking. “It seemed like long-distance walking in nature was something more than ‘just walking’. It felt like the universe was telling me ‘go do it’.”
She’d long wanted to walk the Camino de Santiago: a network of trails crisscrossing Spain, France, and Portugal, leading to the Spanish cathedral of Santiago, where the apostle Saint James’ body is said to be buried. The Camino, as it’s usually called, attracts more than 200,000 pilgrims each year.
For Jennifer, it wasn’t a pilgrimage in a religious sense, though she’s ‘broadly spiritual’. “It was about proclaiming joy, courage and self-belief.”
The pandemic delayed her trip, but she spent those two years walking trails around Wellington. She established a walking group. “And I turned to a ‘virtual Camino’ – a daily walking challenge shared through an online community on Facebook.”Jennifer gradually increased her distance and confidence, and found that walking slightly eased her symptoms.
In 2022 she flew to Europe, to walk La Voie du Puy in France – through the volcanic hills of the Velay region, and the foothills of the Pyrenees to the Spanish border. To Jennifer’s delight, a school friend, Melanie, joined her. “It was really great having somebody to share the experience and the evenings with.” It took 42 days.
In 2023 Jennifer walked La Voie de Vézelay – from Vézelay in France to Santiago in north-west Spain – with Bridget, a “fellow pilgrim” that Jennifer had met through a Facebook group during Covid. Their trek took 45 days.
Did Jennifer’s husband think about joining her? “He would have if I’d asked him to, but it’s not his thing. He runs marathons and does trail runs. We’re quite different people and we’ve often jokingly said we’d end up divorced if we did the Camino together!”
Yes, it was hard leaving her sons to do the Camino, particularly with Nicholas being eight. Before she left, he told her, “I’ll always be walking alongside you, even when I’m not beside you”. She WhatsApped and messaged her family every day.
Starting was difficult. Jennifer was initially worried that she’d get lost, or injure herself. “I woke up on my first morning to start walking and I was so overwhelmed and so nervous that I could barely eat, then I opened my email.” There were poems from her sons – one called ‘Great Mum’, by Nicholas. Jennifer was too emotional to read them until the evening.
Some days, she was eager to get going. Other days – particularly at the start – were gruelling at times: the heat, the rocky terrain in places, the blisters, the swelling feet. “Some days it was ‘how am I gonna keep walking?’. It’s tiring. It’s full-on. So why wouldn’t you just quit? Or take a bus?” At one point, she was walking alongside a railway track – but resisted the urge to flag down a train. “I realised that whether or not you continue is 100% inside yourself. It’s totally a mental game.”
Jennifer could walk four to five hours a day. She and her travel companions also explored villages, went to small markets, and stayed with pilgrimage ‘hosts’ (as they’re known), sharing lots of good food. On and off the trails, Jennifer enjoyed the unexpected encounters, the conversations, the connections, the sense of community. “That’s what I perhaps most love about it. The serendipity of meeting people. Having fun. We laughed a lot. And laughing is just so good for you.”
Initially Jennifer felt that the fatigue and an initial lack of sleep were triggering her symptoms, leaving her stiff and shaky with muscle fatigue. But she began having some sleep that was more deep, uninterrupted, and restorative than she’d had in years.
Her symptoms started to ease, to the point she only experienced her tremor – and less so than normal. “You shed that manufactured stress in your brain about things that you think are important. You’re just walking, talking, eating, sleeping, meeting people, engaging socially. That’s good for dopamine and the brain. In a way, a pilgrimage is a mini-microcosm of what leads to better health and a longer life.”
At the end of the second trail, she wrote in her journal: “I can’t wipe the grin off my face as I stroll into town… I’ve done it.”
Between the two trails, she’d walked 1800 kilometres. A book was brewing.
And she wasn’t going to stop there.
Read Part 2 of this story here.
Visit myparallellives.com to contact Jennifer, subscribe to her blog, read about her experiences, or learn about her books
