Sue Thompson is a physical education teacher, but in the summer of 2016 she took on the endurance challenge of a lifetime. She, along with two other people living with Parkinson’s disease (PD), walked 500 miles in 45 days from the Bronx to Toronto to demonstrate what all people with the disease can achieve.

Sue, 52, was diagnosed with PD four years ago. She knows that she is not who many picture when they hear the word “Parkinson’s.” To help change people’s perceptions of the disease, she joined fellow Torontonian Harry McMurtry’s 500 Miles for Parkinson’s. The endeavor raised close to $1 million for organizations driving PD research, including the The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. It also helped forge connections within the PD community: “I’m still in contact with people who came out and told us their stories of Parkinson’s and their family just because they saw us on the side of the road.”