A North East businessman who is living with Parkinson’s has gathered a near-£1m in-kind donation to raise awareness of the condition across the UK.
Mark Catterall, chief executive of Smart Media Group, has recruited the support of outdoor media businesses across the country – including his own business’ screens – to run a campaign for Parkinson’s UK on World Parkinson’s Day which is marked today (April 11) each year.
The screens will be used by Parkinson’s UK to display ‘Poems for World Parkinson’s Day’, with people living with the condition sharing their experience through short stories and poems. Landmarks across the region will also be lit up blue to raise awareness of disease.
The Sunderland-based business owner, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2019, called on his connections in the industry to donate free media space to raise awareness of the much misunderstood condition and drive donations to Parkinson’s UK, which works to provide day-to-day support to people living with the condition and fund life-changing research to ultimately find a cure.
Using his network, Caterall has been able to secure well over £900k worth of advertising space on independently owned digital out of home screens across the country. The screens are showcasing unique poems shared by the community, detailing their personal experience of the condition.
He said: “I am humbled by the incredible support that my colleagues and friends in the outdoor media market have offered to help raise awareness of a condition I live with day-to-day.
“Every hour, two more people are diagnosed with Parkinson’s and like me, would not have realised and understood the impact it can have on them and their loved ones who support them. Through this campaign, I hope to be able to change that but also to bring some hope to people living with the condition too, because the campaign is optimistic and positive.”
Caterall, whose business is based in Evolve at Rainton Bridge, runs a number of businesses under his Smart Media Group parent company, including Smart Outdoor, a media owner with 68 screens across the North of England and Scotland, and Smart Media Network, a route to more than 300 screens across the country, working with a range of independent media owners.
He discovered he had Parkinson’s after noticing issues with his movement. After his diagnosis, Caterall developed a relationship with Parkinson’s UK, and over the last few years, he has donated hundreds of thousands of pounds of media space across his own screens to the charity, to ensure as many people as possible know about the condition and support Parkinson’s UK.
He said: “Parkinson’s is a condition that, naturally, is close to my heart, and being able to use my business to support a charity that is doing so much for people living with the condition and their families, is something I’m really proud of.
“The support of colleagues in the outdoor media world has been fantastic and I am incredibly moved by their willingness to get behind this campaign and give space at no cost to help me get the message out for Parkinson’s UK around World Parkinson’s Day.”
Ghalib Ullah, Head of Commercial Partnerships at Parkinson’s UK, added: “Mark has been such a supportive ambassador of Parkinson’s UK since he reached out to us following his own diagnosis. Like many others living with Parkinson’s, Mark continues to prove that it is still possible to achieve amazing things, and his work to support our charity is just one of them. It’s an incredible gesture and support we are enormously grateful for.”
Media partners including Open Media, Route Media, Engage Outdoor, ACMS, Bravo Outdoor, 75 Media, Omega Outdoor, Lucid Outdoor, London Lites, Alight Media, Boomerang,Wildstone, IQ OOH and I-MEDIA have offered space to support the Parkinson’s community.
