Joe Moore, 67, and his wife Ann, 61, from Clinton, New York have been married for 34 years and have remained a team in all phases of life. They were a united front through Joe’s cancer diagnosis at age 35. When Joe was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2021, the husband-and-wife duo would, again, take on this challenge together.  

The Moores came across the Michael J. Fox Foundation and our landmark research study, the Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI). At first, Joe was a little hesitant to participate but felt deeply inspired by the words, “A cure is not going to fall from the sky," said by Michael J. Fox himself. As someone newly diagnosed who had not started Parkinson’s medication yet, Joe met the study’s eligibility criteria and he decided to join. Ann readily joined the study alongside her husband as a control participant, and they embarked on this new journey.  

“We're a team. This is the ‘in sickness and in health’ part. We encourage each other, we laugh and we even compete to see who performed better on a cognitive test. Sometimes we make our study visits into a date weekend. When we finish, we feel like we are on Cloud Nine because we did the right thing,” said the couple of their experience together.

Joe and Ann are currently enrolled in PPMI at the University of Rochester and periodically undergo a series of tests to help researchers better understand who gets Parkinson’s, who doesn’t, and why. They expressed appreciation for PPMI researchers they've worked with commenting, "The study team is wonderful and help take the anxiety out of it."

“There’s hope in research. When I got my cancer diagnosis thirty years ago, the drugs I took had only been around for 11 years and they saved my life. Research works.” says Joe. “PPMI had a major breakthrough in 2023.That made us feel very proud. For anyone newly diagnosed, I would absolutely encourage you to participate.”  

Joe and Ann make a significant impact in our study, and you can too. PPMI is actively recruiting people with and without Parkinson’s disease:  
 

• People of all backgrounds diagnosed in the past two years who have not started Parkinson’s medication yet can connect with the PPMI team at 877-525-PPMI or joinppmi@michaeljfox.org.
• If you are age 60 or older, live in the U.S. or Canda, and do not have Parkinson’s, you can help researchers examining the link between smell loss and risk for Parkinsons. Request a free scratch-and-sniff test today.  

• Anyone 18+ with or without PD living within the U.S. can join PPMI’s online platform and share valuable data. Should eligibility criteria expand, online participants will be notified of new research cohorts.