Roommates Li Jiang and Elaine Jongsma are 31 years apart in age, but they have much in common.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Their late November birthdays fall one day away from one another, and celebrations are set for this weekend.\u00a0They love debriefing after first dates, lingering in each other\u2019s doorways to chat about the day\u2019s events, and biking.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They also both spent many years after being diagnosed with Parkinson\u2019s disease trying to hide it. But now, Jongsma said, \u201cWe can just be ourselves.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jiang, 35, doesn\u2019t bat an eye when Jongsma, 66, crawls around the house on her knees in the morning before her medication kicks in, and there\u2019s no judgment when Jiang cries without any emotional trigger, one of the symptoms she experiences with her young-onset Parkinson\u2019s.<\/p>\n
The pair got to know each other at a cross-country bike ride for Parkinson\u2019s awareness in August. While peddling more than 2,000 kilometres across British Columbia and Alberta, they learned they were about to live in the same city.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jiang was going back to school in the fall to study integrated rehabilitation and humanities at McMaster University.<\/p>\n
Jongsma had a spare room at her house in Hamilton.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was really a fluke,\u201d Jongsma said. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Since forming the bond, they\u2019ve encouraged each other to be as they are, rather than live in fear of being belittled, pitied and judged. They say living alone or with roommates who are aware that they have this diagnosis doesn\u2019t compare to their innate understanding of one another.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The impact of Parkinson\u2019s disease<\/p>\n
Parkinson\u2019s disease is a progressive movement disorder that can cause nerve cells in the brain to weaken, damage, and die, leading to tremor, stiffness, and challenges with balance, walking and talking.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dr. Sarah Lidstone, a movement disorder neurologist at University Health Network, said there are also non-motor symptoms, which some studies have shown women experience more often than men, such as anxiety, depression and fatigue.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere also tends to be this idea that, \u2018Oh, they\u2019re just feeling anxious or their mood is low because they got this diagnosis, but actually neurochemically in the brain there can be an overlap in those symptoms for sure,\u201d Lidstone said.<\/p>\n
She said Parkinson\u2019s has long been illustrated in medical school as a hunched over 70-year-old man, and only recently did that image evolve to include a woman going on a run. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Dr. Veronica Bruno, a neurologist in\u00a0Calgary\u00a0with a subspecialty in movement disorders,said participants in focus groups she runs for her research on women with Parkinson\u2019s across Canada often talk about hiding their symptoms.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s for us the main concern because nobody seems to be looking at it, from a sex and gender perspective,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Bruno said she\u2019s observed women with Parkinson\u2019s are more likely to experience pain and anxiety, which could be related to the fact that they are undertreated, and their diagnoses are often delayed by years, compared to men. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Approximately 14,800 people were diagnosed with Parkinson\u2019s in 2023 to 2024 \u2013 60 per cent of which were male and 40 per cent female, according to Parkinson Canada.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Research shows men are 1.5 times more likely to develop Parkinson\u2019s than women.<\/p>\n
However, Bruno said statistics have traditionally leaned more heavily towards men and there\u2019s a high likelihood that merely reflects that they get diagnosed and treated more.<\/p>\n
As a teenager, Li couldn\u2019t swing her arms in gym class. She constantly had bloody knees from tripping over herself and her right hand became too rigid to write.<\/p>\n
Years later, at 21, she was diagnosed with young-onset Parkinson\u2019s after a gene test showed that she had two rare mutations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI was in denial for over 10 years. You feel lonely because you don\u2019t want other people to know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Li Jiang<\/p>\n
Jongsma was in her late fifties when she was diagnosed in 2018 after the fingers on her right hand could no longer click on her mouse at work. She swapped to her left hand for a year, and then she started to feel numbness and a tremor in her right arm.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The shock of her diagnosis evolved into grief as she mourned the life she had planned for her retirement. She spent a very long time feeling alone.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never saw things moving forward. I just thought my life ended,\u201d Jongsma said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They both discovered movement helped alleviate their symptoms \u2013 \u00a0swimming, hiking, tai chi, dance classes, and biking, where they found one another.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou realize that you\u2019re not on the journey alone. We share it with each other.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
That in itself is no small feat, Bruno said. \u201cThe power of someone just listening and understanding is infinite.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 27, 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Editor\u2019s note: Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content<\/p>\n
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