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Liz Jackson opens up on Parkinson’s battle

Liz Jackson pictured during her prolific stint on <i>Four Corners</i>.

Liz Jackson pictured during her prolific stint on Four Corners. Photo: ABC

Veteran Walkley Award-winning journalist Liz Jackson has gone public to tell the harrowing and confronting story of her battle with Parkinson’s disease.

Jackson, 66, retired from the ABC in 2013 and had looked forward to a life of less stress and more relaxation, but was diagnosed with the disease only 18 months later.

Monday’s Four Corners program will document just how much Parkinson’s has changed her life, uncovering some of the misconceptions about the commonly late-onset disease.

Between 1994 and 2011, Jackson was a formidable force undertaking investigative reporting for Four Corners. She previously worked for Triple J, Radio National and Media Watch.

“Eighteen months after I left [the ABC], I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease,” Jackson wrote in a heartfelt first-person feature for ABC as a preview of the Four Corners episode.

“It’s a complicated disease of the brain that can have different effects on different people. For me it’s meant pain and panic attacks.”

Parkinson’s is a disease of the nervous system which affects people’s movement and triggers tremors or rigid muscles, among many other symptoms.

She wrote that her partner, Martin Butler, and close friend Bentley Dean had initially discussed the idea of a film about the disease with her.

While Jackson wanted to document this chapter in her life, she admitted there were significant challenges.

“Given that my daily reality involves distress, a lot of pain and panic attacks, I was wary,” she wrote. “Up close and personal with me at the moment is not always a pretty sight. Did I really want the world to see?

“The first time I saw [footage of] the rushes of my panic attack in the doctor’s surgery I was appalled.

“I had no idea I looked so bad and so mad, like a half-crazed, underfed animal in the presence of a malignant predator, with a long, lonely drool of saliva falling from my lips into my lap.”

“There was no doubt in my mind we needed the scene, but I was pleased the drool never made the final cut.”

Her next worry was her children, aged 27 and 31. Jackson said she initially would “hide” when they came to visit because she didn’t want them to worry about her.

But the former journalist has finally learned to be open about her situation, helped by making the documentary.

liz jackson parkinson's

Liz Jackson worked on the documentary with her partner Martin Butler. Photo: ABC

“Last weekend I posted on Facebook for what I calculated was the second time in my life to let past and present, friends and colleagues know that I had been making the documentary,” she wrote.

“The response was overwhelming and I was touched so many people commented and congratulated me.

“In many ways, this is the hardest film I’ve made, and I’ve made some tough ones over the years.”

Jackson’s first of nine Walkley Awards came in 1993. It was for a story entitled “Somalia, Dying for Relief”, in the category of Best International Report. She also won a Walkley in 2000 for a report on cricket match-fixing entitled “Fixing Cricket”.

Her final Walkley Award came in 2011 for a report entitled “Who Killed Mr Ward?” This told the story of an indigenous man who died in Western Australia after being held in the back of an overheated prison security van.

Four Corners‘ story ‘A Sense Of Self’ airs on ABC TV on Monday, November 21 at 8.30pm.

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