Built from a promise. Powered by volunteers. Focused on a cure.
On Christmas morning 2017, Wendy Chase sat across the breakfast table from her mom, Sue, wishing she could give her a gift Parkinson's could not take away. With treatments no longer helping, Wendy promised to raise money for The Michael J. Fox Foundation to help fund a cure, and Sue loved the gift.
My mom's name was Sue Chase. If you asked her friends about her, every single one of them would tell you the same thing, that when Sue looked at you, when Sue listened to you, you felt like you were her only and very best friend in the world. That was her gift. She made people feel seen.
And on Christmas morning 2017, medicine had given all it could, so love gave her what Parkinson's could not take away: a promise.
I knew it before anyone said it out loud. Because of my background and my experience, I understood what the treatment options were, and I had watched her try every single one. There was nothing left. The team had done everything they could. No more appointments that mattered. No more medications that would turn the tide. Only a miracle could save her now, and I already knew the miracle wasn't coming.
But my mom never knew that. Or if she did, she never let it stop her. She fought with a kind of grit I will admire for the rest of my life. She had strength I still cannot fathom. She never gave up hope, not once, not until the very end.
Christmas morning is supposed to feel like joy. Like gratitude. Like the celebration of a Savior born into the world. That Christmas morning felt like none of those things. It felt out of place. It felt like the air had been let out of the room.
I sat with her and I had nothing to give her. No gift in the world could bring her joy anymore, because hope, the kind the doctors can offer, was done. And in that silence, in that hollow, unbearable silence, God winked at me.
Words came out of my mouth before I knew I was going to say them.
“Mom, what if we started raising money? What if we tried
to find a cure for Parkinson's?”
And my mom lit up. I watched her heart grow right there in front of me. She looked at me and she said, Let's do that. Let's make sure no other family has to go through this.
That was the beginning.
In April of 2018, we started the Chasing a Cure Parkinson's Foundation, a name that blends my family's name, Chase, with my husband Rob's family name, Spalding. Because Parkinson's took from both sides. Because this fight was never just mine. My mom helped shape the vision. She was there at the beginning. She did not get to see the rest.
Just after the next Christmas, Parkinson's took her from us. On her last conscious night, before hospice began and before she went home to heaven, she made me promise her something. She asked me to never stop. Never stop until a cure is found.
“My mom fought with everything she had. Her miracle
didn't come. Let's be somebody else's.”
Awareness is not what families are
begging for at 3 a.m.
Awareness is important. But awareness is not what families are begging for at 3 a.m. in a hospital room. Awareness is not what I was holding in my hands that Christmas morning when I knew my mother was leaving me. A cure is what families deserve.
The science is moving. That is the part I want you to hear. The science is moving, and it is close enough that funding it now, funding it today, funding it this year, actually changes when we get there. That's not a marketing line. That's what my career has taught me.
Sue Chase
When Sue looked at you, you felt like you were her only and very best friend in the world. That was her gift. She made people feel seen. She is the reason this foundation exists. She is the reason we will not stop.
Homer
Homer is one of the bravest people Wendy knows. He navigates Parkinson's every day with grace and grit. He is who we are working for. He is proof that the work is not finished.
Melva
Melva's diagnosis made clear that Parkinson's doesn't stop at one side of the family. It took from both. This foundation was built for Melva, for Sue, and for every family still waiting.
The science is moving. Help us get there.
Funds raised benefit The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research. No salaries. No paid staff. Science fuels hope.