A Neptune Beach Father Starts a 540-Mile Paddleboard Trip Monday for His Daughter and Everyone Living With Sjogren's
Jason Parker launches Monday from Fernandina Beach and plans to paddle the Intracoastal to Key West over 18 to 20 days — raising money for the Sjogren's Foundation and awareness of the disease his daughter Gabby was diagnosed with at 11.
A Neptune Beach father's answer to his daughter's illness starts Monday on a paddleboard. Jason Parker, who owns Performance Painting in Neptune Beach, plans to begin a 540-mile stand-up paddleboard trip on Monday, November 2, to raise awareness of Sjogren's disease and money for the Sjogren's Foundation, the Florida Times-Union reported Sunday. His daughter Gabby Parker, now 22, was diagnosed with the chronic autoimmune condition at 11, after two years of swelling, pain and tests that at points raised fears of lupus, lymphoma and cancer.
The inaugural Paddle for Sjogren's launches from Fort Clinch State Park in Fernandina Beach, at the Florida-Georgia line, and follows the Intracoastal Waterway to Fort Zachary Taylor State Park in Key West. Parker expects to cover 22 to 38 miles a day over an estimated 18 to 20 days, alternating hotels and camping, solo except for an 18-mile open-water stretch between Key Biscayne and Boca Chita Key, where a boat will escort him. He hopes to raise $25,000 through PaddleForSjogrens.com and has invited other paddlers to join him for a stretch or offer their docks for rest.
The trip follows the family's own example: at 16, Gabby organized a fundraising walk that raised $10,000 for the foundation. Sjogren's is the second-most common rheumatic autoimmune disease in the United States after rheumatoid arthritis, affecting as many as 4 million Americans — about half of them undiagnosed — and nine of every 10 diagnosed patients are women, according to the foundation. The average gap between first symptoms and diagnosis can run as long as three years.
Gabby Parker, an Episcopal School of Jacksonville graduate who earned degrees in musical theatre and political science from the University of Miami in May and has moved to New York to pursue acting, says her symptoms are now much more manageable. Her father is candid about why he is going: he cannot take her struggle or pain away, he told the Times-Union, but he can suffer a bit to support her and others who live with the disease.
