Watch the conversation with Dr. Soania Mathur here.
Dr. Soania Mathur is a family physician living outside of Toronto, Ontario, Canada who resigned her clinical practice twelve years following her diagnosis of Young Onset Parkinson’s Disease at age 28. Now she is a dedicated speaker, writer, educator and Parkinson’s advocate.
Dr. Mathur is an active speaker in Canada and internationally at patient-directed conferences and has authored a number of published papers and online pieces that focus on patient education and empowerment.
She serves as Co-Chair for the Patient Council of The Michael J. Fox foundation for Parkinson’s Research and is also a member of the Executive Science Advisory Board at MJFF. She also devotes time as a member of Board of Directors at The Davis Phinney Foundation, is part of the Editorial Board for the Journal of Parkinson’s Disease and serves on The Brian Grant Foundation Advisory Board. Dr. Mathur has valued her involvement with WPC as both a speaker and committee member and was awarded the World Parkinson Coalition Award for Distinguished Contribution to the Parkinson’s Community at the WPC in 2019. She was also privileged to be recognized in 2020 by receiving the Alan Bonander Humanitarian Award for her work in the PD community. Locally she is a member of the Board of Directors for the Lakeridge Health Foundation and also sits on the Patient Advisory Board for the Toronto Western Hospital Movement Disorder Clinic where she chairs the research committee.
Recently she co-founded PD Avengers, a global alliance of Parkinson’s advocates and she is the founder of UnshakeableMD (www.unshakeablemd.com), which serves as a platform to educate and inspire those living with PD.
To help facilitate dialogue between children and their loved ones, she has authored two books: My Grandpa’s Shaky Hands and Shaky Hands: A Kid’s Guide to Parkinson’s Disease. All proceeds from the sales of these books are donated back to support Parkinson’s research and other efforts that serve the PD community.