A 75-year-old Belgian woman with Parkinson's is putting the disease on the ropes by practicing non-contact boxing in southern Antalya province along the Turkish Mediterranean coast.
Donning shiny gloves and purple sneakers, Nancy van der Straeten hops into the boxing ring and starts punching in a fight against severe symptoms of the neurodegenerative disease.
Six years after her diagnosis, van der Straeten discovered the benefits of boxing by chance while researching the disease. Ever since she has been perfecting her punching by going to a gym three times a week.
"It does not stop your Parkinson's. Parkinson's is a degenerative disease. It never stops but you can ... slow it down," van der Straeten said at a gym in Antalya where she has lived for 15 years.
Non-contact boxing does not involve taking any punches, so there is no risk of head trauma. Known affectionately by the locals as "Auntie Naciye," she said when she first stepped into the boxing ring, people watched the grandmother of eight with their mouths agape as they were not used to seeing women of her age in the ring.
"If you are more than 50 years old they really look at you like this: 'What are you coming to do here?' But they are gentle from the heart, the Turks. So they let me do it," she told Reuters.
Parkinson's, a progressive disease that affects millions of people worldwide, produces tremors and stiffness as well as problems walking and speaking. Despite limited research, intense exercise has been associated with improving patients' lives.
"Studies have shown that non-contact boxing is good for the brain so it is good for Parkinson's disease. Will it cure Parkinson's disease? Probably not because it is a neurodegenerative disorder ... but it does improve the quality of life for patients," said Geysu Karlıkaya, a neurologist at Medicana Hospital in Istanbul. A furniture designer and painter, van der Straeten said it has been easier to do housework since she began boxing.
"My doctor said one day, it is forbidden to you to sit down. Go on, go on, go on. And that is my counsel to everybody," she said. "Go out to sport and do something that you like."
