Overcoming adversity with the support of ‘Harvey family’ is key to living with Parkinson’s disease

If you’ve ever been on the Harvey Community Facebook page you’ve probably seen Darrell Higginbottom’s posts updating his “Harvey family” on life and offering kind words to everyone around him.

He has become somewhat of a social media celebrity in Harvey, and updates the community on his days living with Parkinson’s disease.

When he first moved to Harvey, Mr Higginbottom worked as a chaplain — first at the WA College of Agriculture, and then at Yarloop Primary School.

“It’s my heart and my passion to help people,” he said.

But when his Parkinson’s began to affect his memory, he made the difficult decision to step away from the school.

“There was too much at risk,” he said.

“This was too important to risk messing up.”

After retiring on a disability pension, he said his heart and drive was still there. So he took to social media and simply started by offering words of encouragement, before it began to snowball into something bigger.

He said he never planned for it to take off but now his kids called him a “social media influencer”.

“What I was initially posting struck a chord with certain people,” Mr Higginbottom said.

“And it wasn’t just for the people of Harvey — it was much broader, and a big section of the community embraced it and took something from it.”

Beyond his social media prowess, Mr Higginbottom can be found at the Harvey Library running his group Parky Pals, offering support to anyone who has been affected by Parkinson’s disease.

He said this was one of the many ways he wanted to help people in the community.

“Because it’s more than just a group of people, or a community, it’s a family,” Mr Higginbottom said.

For his wife Robyn, Mr Higginbottom’s connection with the community offers her peace of mind knowing so many in the community will be there to support him if he should need help.

“I can’t always be there,” she said.

“But, I don’t have to worry that he’s safe when he’s doing stuff around town because I know that there’s always someone there for him.”

Mr Higginbottom chimed in saying if he was caught doing the wrong thing, there was always more than one person willing to give him a “kick up the bum”.

Mrs Higginbottom said those in town had been immensely supportive of them both, from the staff at the library who helped facilitate Parky Pals, to the local schools and the community at large.

“We’re very fortunate,” she said.

“We really feel like we’re just in a blessed little pocket here in Harvey.”

Mr Higginbottom said he would not stop posting on the Harvey Facebook group anytime soon and he would continue to offer kind words and remind people to “have a Harveytastical day”.