SANDPOINT — Since his diagnosis in 2013, A.C. Woolnough has participated in more than 25 research studies on Parkinson’s disease.

“I kind of look at this as paying it forward for my dad,” Woolnough said. “When he was diagnosed, they didn’t have a lot of what’s available now, and while he didn’t die from his Parkinson’s, his quality of life was significantly altered and lessened.”

Among his efforts toward education and research of the disease, Woolnough is one of three United States ambassadors for the World Parkinson Congress, which occurs every three years in different locations across the globe. The mission of the congress, according to the WPC website, is to provide an international forum to learn about the latest scientific discoveries, medical practices, caregiver initiatives and advocacy work related to Parkinson’s disease. By bringing physicians, scientists, nurses, rehabilitation specialists, caregivers and people with Parkinson’s disease together, each Congress allows for a worldwide dialogue to help expedite the discovery of a cure and best treatment practices for the disease.

At the 2016 congress, which was held in Portland, Ore., more than 5,000 people from over 65 countries attended, Woolnough said. The 2019 event will be held in Kyoto, Japan, and as an ambassador, Woolnough is tasked with traveling around the U.S. to meet with Parkinson’s support groups to encourage people to attend. He takes his travel companion and mascot for the congress, a stuffed raccoon named Parki, with him on these trips to help initiate conversations in places such as airports as well.

Dozens of speakers take part in the four-day event, he said. The 2019 congress will be held June 4-7, 2019, with the main program held between Wednesday and Friday that week. There is a pre-congress course on Tuesday, June 4, which Woolnough has been asked to host. He will also co-host a roundtable discussion on June 5, where he will talk about the relationship between researchers and people with Parkinson’s. His pre-congress course is titled, “Tips and Tricks for Living with Parkinson’s that Go Beyond Medication.”

“By being invited to be a speaker and a host — they call that being a member of the faculty — that’s just very exciting,” Woolnough said.

Woolnough is also excited to go back to Japan, as he was 6-years-old the last time he was there.

“I’m hoping this refreshes some memories,” he said, recalling the sight of Mount Fuji and the traditional Japanese toriis.

Kyoto is described on the WPC website as a world heritage site with traditional architecture, Japanese gardens alongside a “cutting-edge” culture of learning, research and business.

Woolnough was diagnosed with a “tremor-dominant” form of Parkinson’s in 2014, after he began to show symptoms about a year earlier while teaching in a small Eskimo village in Shungnak, Alaska. There are several motor and nonmotor symptoms associated with the disease, he said, so each person may exhibit different symptoms. The “tremor-dominant” form is theoretically the slowest progressing and the least likely to lead to dementia, which is common with the disease, Woolnough said.

As a research advocate on the People with Parkinson’s Advisory Council for the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation, Woolnough looks at his role as advocacy, education and research. Woolnough said he has a moral obligation to help because he can, quoting the phrase, “If not us, who? And if not now, when?”

“I like to apply that to the concept of research,” he said.

Information: wpc2019.org

Mary Malone can be reached by email at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee.