My Presentation

This morning we arrived early at the Italian Institute of Health and at 09:00 entered and registered. We were warmly welcomed by the organisers with whom I have been in e-mail contact with for several weeks now, so it was nice putting faces to the names. Wearing our tags we were ushered to reserved seats in the front row as slowly the lecture hall filled up. We were given simultaneous translation headsets, although much of the Congress was in English. It was a pleasure to finally meet Prof. Brian Hurwitz, and sitting next to him, I soon discovered what a charming man he is. Hearing his opening lecture, there was a connection between his talk and mine as he spoke about Dr. James Parkinson's powers of observation which lead him to writing an Essay on the Shaking Palsy in 1817 which was later named (Parkinson's disease). It was then my turn to talk, and without hesitation or feeling nervous, I went up onto the stage, and spoke for 15 minutes. Unlike most speakers there today, I didn't read my presentation, for I particularly wanted to speak straight from my heart, which I believe captured the audience's attention. Right at the end of my 15 minutes I read a shorten version of the very last poem in my book "This isn't the end, there's always tomorrow". There was a burst of applause, and then five extra minutes, where several people asked questions. During the morning break, and at the lunch break it was a great opportunity to mingle with all the other guests, who were mostly doctors, professors, academics working in the medical field, and a few patients representing various diseases. I was there fundamentally to represent Gaucher disease, a rare disease, although naturally I spoke about Parkinson's too as this is part of my story and what prompted me to write my book of poems. We are now back in the hotel and thought I would let you all know that it went very well indeed. It has been a long day and I am very tired, but extremely happy and satisfied at how successful today was. This congress was tailor made for me; Narrative Medicine and Rare Diseases - to narrate by telling a story is one of the things I do best, and I certainly qualify for the rare disease part! A room full of prominent people in the medical field today got to hear about Gaucher and Parkinson's disease - mission accomplished!