Author(s): Brian Sherman

Medicine / Specific Conditions

""It's morning and the night has passed. Inch by inch, centimetre by centimetre, my life force, my self, is being eroded and then, presto, the heavy veil covering my face slowly lifts. I know that I am slowly disappearing. The Brian Sherman you all once knew will be no more.""

This cry from the heart was written some three years ago. It is the aftermath of a nightmare, literally and figuratively, and a low point in my battle with Parkinson's disease, which has now extended over ten or more years. Remarkably for a progressive illness, I have improved, but the war goes on.

After a remarkable and triumphant public life, Brian Sherman came face to face with the debilitating Parkinson's Disease. This is the moving, poignant and fascinating story of his Parkinson's journey."

About the author

Over more than fifty years in business, Brian Sherman AM has been chairman and joint managing director of the EquitiLink Group, a director of the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games and chairman of its Finance Committee, chairman of ASX-listed Aberdeen Leaders Limited, chairman of a number of investment companies listed on the American Stock Exchange, and a director of Network Ten.

Brian served as president of the Australian Museum Trust, and director of Sherman Galleries and the Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation. He is co-founder and managing director of the animal charity Voiceless, a director of the Sherman Centre for Culture and Ideas, a director of the Australia Israel & Jewish Affairs Council, and chairman of the Rambam Israel Fellowships program. For his services to the community and his philanthropy in the arts, medical science, animal rights and the Jewish community Brian was awarded the Order of Australia, an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award, and an Honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of Technology, Sydney. With his wife Gene, he received the B'nai B'rith Gold Medal for outstanding humanitarianism. Brian's life has been the subject of two episodes of ABC TV's Australian Story.

AM Jonson has written and edited widely on society, ethics, technology and the arts for many presses and publications, including MIT Press as well as mainstream and specialist media. She has a PhD from the University of Sydney. Her background includes working as a strategy, corporate and communications director in NGOs, a media company and for leading philanthropists.