23/04/2026
St George’s Day
Today is St George’s Day, and across England people will raise a flag, raise a glass, and think about what it means to be brave.
The legend is a simple one. A knight faces a dragon. He does not run. He does not pretend the dragon is not there. He stands his ground and fights, not because he is fearless, but because something greater than fear drives him forward.
For anyone living with Parkinson’s, that story is not a fairy tale. It is Tuesday morning.
Every day, people with Parkinson’s face a dragon of their own. It is invisible to most of the world, but those who carry it know its weight. The tremor that arrives uninvited. The stiffness that turns a simple task into a negotiation. The fatigue that lands without warning and does not ask permission to stay. The slow, relentless nature of a condition that does not pause for weekends or holidays or the days when you just need a break.
And yet people get up. They make the tea, they take the medication, they go for the walk even when every step feels like a small argument with their own body. They show up for the people they love, and they carry the dragon with them rather than letting it carry them.
That is a kind of courage St George would recognise.
There is something else worth saying on a day like this. St George did not fight alone. In most versions of the story there is a community around him, people who had been living in fear, who had been quietly enduring, waiting for something to change. His act of courage gave others permission to believe that the dragon could be faced.
That is what the Parkinson’s community does for itself, every day. The person who speaks openly about their diagnosis, so that someone newly diagnosed feels less alone. The carer who shares what the hard days really look like, so that another carer knows they are not failing. The advocate who keeps pushing for better services, better research, better understanding, even when progress feels painfully slow.
These are not small things. These are acts of courage, repeated quietly, in living rooms and hospital waiting areas and community halls and online spaces all over the country.
St George’s Day is a day for England, yes, but the values it points to belong to everyone. Courage is not the absence of fear. It is the decision to keep moving despite it. And in the Parkinson’s community, that decision is made every single morning by thousands of people who deserve to be seen and celebrated.
So today, if you are living with Parkinson’s, or loving someone who is, or walking alongside the community in any way, know this. You are not a bystander in someone else’s story. You are the knight. You are already fighting.
The dragon is real. And so are you.
Written for Parkinsons Way. St George’s Day, 23 April 2026.
