Emma Kyriacou isn't letting Parkinson's disease stop her enjoyment of karate. Photo / David Haxton
Emma Kyriacou isn't letting Parkinson's disease stop her enjoyment of karate. Photo / David Haxton
It has been more than five years since Emma Kyriacou started doing karate with her son, and it’s had a better impact on her health than she could have ever known.
About a year after she started doing karate at Kāpiti Karate Academy, Kyriacou, who lives in Otaihanga, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, a condition that left her using a walking stick and in a nervous state of mind.
But despite being on various medications for Parkinson’s, Kyriacou found exercise to be the best medicine, especially karate.
In fact, a lot of karate stances are similar to the big movements that physical therapy exercises promote for Parkinson’s.
Since her diagnosis in 2018, her condition continues to progress but has improved a lot, and she no longer needs a walking stick.
“I’ve been amazed at how even though my condition progresses, I’ve been able to get better.”
Kyriacou said she’s noticed a huge difference mentally as well, and recalled when she first came to the karate classes, she was using a cane and worried about training in front of people, but she’s a lot more confident now.
And while Parkinson’s still has a huge effect on her everyday life, Kyriacou said she’s the fittest, strongest and most agile she’s ever been.
“Even though you take steps back, you still move forward.
Emma Kyriacou and karate instructor Allan Youl. Photo / David Haxton
“It’s not just about cardio: it’s balance, agility, learning progressively harder skills.
“It’s about finding the thing you find fun, and that keeps you going.”
Kyriacou had symptoms for quite a while before she was diagnosed at 45, and said only about 1 per cent of people with Parkinson’s are in that age bracket.
Her symptoms started after she gave birth to her first child, but it took a long time to get a diagnosis.
She eventually had to quit her job as a policy contractor, and to keep herself busy, she started volunteering to plant at Greendale Reserve, and, of course, took up karate.
In the time she’s been doing karate, she’s managed to get all the way to a brown belt, and has even got to the second level of the brown belt.
She considered giving karate up once she got to the brown belt level, but completely turned that around and now aspires to get a black belt.
Her instructor, Allan Youl, said it will likely take her about two years to gain her black belt, especially because the jump from where she is now as a second-level brown belt to the black belt level is pretty complicated.
One of the best things about karate, Kyriacou said, is you never stop learning, and that’s “part of the beauty” of the sport.
