PFP Participant Spotlight: Meet Dulce!
The PFP reach is far and wide and we absolutely love introducing you to our new participants who live all around the globe. Today, we are happy to welcome one of our newer participants from Portugal, the delightful Dulce Possante!! Many of you will recognise Dulce’s name from her enthusiastic comments on the chatline; and while she has only been a part of the PFP community for a short time, she well and truly feels like part of the family!!
Dulce was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2018 when she was 54 years old. Recently, she happened to be doing some research about PD exercises on YouTube and came across a livestream of two lovely ladies (our very own director, Nina and lead instructor, Lauren!!) talking about Parkinson’s which she stopped to listen to. Dulce joined the chat and immediately felt the warmth from our community and was hooked on all things Power for Parkinson’s!! Dulce is a particular fan of our current Standing Warrior Series as well as Move & Shout and Relax & Reset. She finds PFP classes extremely challenging but really loves how motivating and encouraging all of the instructors are. Dulce always tries to have FUN while exercising with us and also loves how entertaining the classes are. The fact that most of our classes are conducted in a seated position is what initially attracted Dulce to join us as she fractured her tibia and fibula two years ago and so felt that she needed a seated exercise program to manage her Parkinson’s as well as her recent fracture. Through regularly joining classes, Dulce has found that she has been able to recover from her injury and the resulting four surgeries as well as keep her Parkinson’s in check.
Dulce lives in a small town just outside of Lisbon with her two sons and her miniature pinscher, Mafalda. She retired from running her own business in the insurance area after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s and now enjoys spending time with her family, gardening, reading, crocheting and knitting. She loves being in her home and has also taken up painting as a hobby since being diagnosed with PD as she finds it very calming and therapeutic.
For the first year of the pandemic, Dulce wasn’t able to walk without support. Her family, many hobbies and trips to the glorious beaches of Portugal were essential in keeping her spirits up during this time. Dulce loves to travel and quotes Pablo Neruda, the Chilean poet and diplomat; “He who does not travel…dies slowly”. She has been fortunate enough to travel extensively throughout Europe and also to beautiful destinations such as Turkey and Morocco. Now that her major injury is behind her, Dulce hopes to travel once again and also to keep her Parkinson’s at bay so that she can live peacefully one day at a time. Dulce, we can’t wait to see what adventures you get up to in the year ahead, we know that with your vibrant spirit, they will no doubt be great ones. We’re so glad you stumbled across us and that you have stuck with us ever since!!