Health
Military veteran embraces ‘new service’ of helping others after his Parkinson's diagnosis: ‘There is hope'
After 17 years of serving his country, Mark Kelm is now providing a different type of service: He’s advocating for others who, like him, are living with Parkinson’s disease (PD).
Kelm, who lives in a small Minnesota town with his wife of 23 years and three children, was just 38 years old when he was diagnosed with PD, a nervous system disorder that causes tremors, stiffness, loss of balance and other movement issues.
He credits his military background for preparing him for this latest challenge.
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“I believe the times that I had in the military really prepared me to handle living with a disease like Parkinson’s — knowing how to adapt and overcome in any given circumstance,” he told Fox News Digital in an interview.
“And I think those life skills that I learned in the Army are still quite useful today.”
After 17 years of serving his country, Mark Kelm is now providing a different type of service: He’s advocating for others who, like him, are living with Parkinson’s disease. He’s shown in the family picture at left, center, plus on the right. (Mark Kelm)
Surprise diagnosis
Raised by a police deputy and a nurse, Kelm said that for as long as he can remember, his life has been geared toward service.
Since enlisting in the Army Reserves in 1989, Kelp has served many years of active duty, spent time in the National Guard and held a role as a military chaplain.
In 2006, Kelm transitioned to a role as a chaplain for a federal law enforcement agency.
Two years later, at just 38, he was alarmed when he started experiencing involuntary twitching.
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“One muscle in my arm kept twitching, and it was causing my finger to twitch as well, and it just wouldn’t stop,” he recalled.
That began Kelm’s journey toward a diagnosis of young-onset Parkinson’s, which he received at the Mayo Clinic’s neurology department in Minnesota.
“That was a pretty dark day — knowing that it’s a progressive, degenerative neurological disorder that currently does not have a cure or any disease-modifying drugs,” he said.
Mark Kelm, pictured at right, enlisted in the Army Reserves in 1989 and served for many years in active duty. (Mark Kelm)
“As a chaplain, I performed funerals for people who had died from complications of Parkinson’s. So I was very familiar with some of the end-stage aspects of the disease.”
Kelm started taking Levodopa, a central nervous system drug that helps to manage Parkinson’s motor symptoms.
“I believe the times that I had in the military really prepared me to handle living with a disease like Parkinson’s.”
For eight years, he “stayed quiet” on the disease. In 2016, he said, “It was affecting me enough that I no longer could hide it.”
That’s when Kelm retired from full-time work — but his next chapter was just beginning.
New form of service
“After having my own little pity party after my diagnosis, I realized that wasn’t really helpful,” he said.
Kelm’s older daughter, who was in high school at the time, immediately started researching his disease. She soon became involved with fundraising and awareness efforts through the Parkinson’s Foundation.
Kelm, at right, is pictured on a mission trip to Uganda in 1998 while he was serving as a military chaplain. (Mark Kelm)
He was so impressed by his daughter’s efforts that he decided it was time to “get off the bench and get back into the game.”
Kelm has since “jumped in with both feet.”
He became the national chair of the Parkinson’s Foundation People with Parkinson’s Council, which ensures that the perspective of people living with PD is integrated into the foundation’s program development.
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In 2020, Kelm helped create an annual Parkinson’s Awareness Day at Target Field, in partnership with the Minnesota Twins.
He has also organized events to raise funds for the Minneapolis-based Struthers Parkinson’s Center, and volunteers on the U.S. Department of Defense’s medical research programs for Parkinson’s.
“My service is connected to Parkinson’s now,” Kelm told Fox News Digital.
Kelm, at far right, is pictured with his family during a visit to the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee. (Mark Kelm)
“It has been an absolute blessing, because it’s allowed me to meet people from all around this great nation and even the world,” he went on.
“It’s been very positive for me, and I’m very hopeful that there’s a lot of research being done right now.”
Kelm’s advocacy could also indirectly benefit his health, according to Dr. James Beck, PhD, chief scientific officer for the Parkinson’s Foundation in New York City.
“My service is connected to Parkinson’s now.”
“The symptoms of PD – slowness of movement, difficulty in movement, etc. – can shrink a person’s world,” Beck told Fox News Digital.
“Mark’s effort to be involved and make a difference has helped him learn more about his own disease and to be a model advocate for his own care and health.”
What to know about early-onset Parkinson’s
People who are diagnosed with Parkinson’s before age 50 are considered early-onset patients.
Just 4% of people are diagnosed before the age of 50 — and Kelm was one.
Early-onset patients are three times as likely to have a genetic form of the disease, according to Beck.
In 2020, Kelm helped to create an annual Parkinson’s Awareness Day at Target Field, in partnership with the Minnesota Twins. (Mark Kelm)
“People with EOPD typically have a much slower rate of progression of their disease than those diagnosed at an older age,” Beck noted.
Younger patients, however, are more likely to notice stiffness earlier in the course of the disease.
“They will often experience dystonia (e.g., cramping of a hand or toes) as an early symptom,” Beck said.
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Patients with early-onset disease will also often experience levodopa-induced dyskinesia (involuntary movements of body parts) more frequently than those diagnosed after the age of 50, according to Beck.
Kelm said he does experience dyskinesia from time to time.
“At first, I thought, ‘I’m going to beat this,’” he said. “And after a few years, I started having some swallowing issues, which led to choking while eating.”
Kelm is pictured with his wife of 23 years, Beth Kelm. “She is the rock of the family. She does 99% of the work, and I go in for the 1% of glory.” (Mark Kelm)
“It was a wake-up call, and an awareness that I needed to do more to manage the disease.”
Coming to terms with his mortality was tough, Kelm acknowledged — but he found some comfort in knowing.
“I found peace in knowing that everything is going to be OK.”
“You don’t die from Parkinson’s — you die with Parkinson’s,” he said. “You die from complications of the disease, especially if you’re younger. And I found peace in knowing that everything is going to be OK.”
He added, “All of us are going to leave this earth one way or another. Some of us are given knowledge beforehand, while others are not.”
The military-Parkinson’s link
There are currently more than 110,000 veterans with Parkinson’s disease who receive care through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), according to the Parkinson’s Foundation.
In 2009, the Health and Medicine Division of the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine released a report stating that there is “suggestive but limited evidence that exposure to Agent Orange and other herbicides used during the Vietnam War is associated with an increased chance of developing Parkinson’s disease.”
Second from right, Kelm is pictured delivering tailgate Communion while serving as a military chaplain. (Mark Kelm)
As the Parkinson’s Foundation stated, PD is a “presumptive condition for veterans who were exposed to Agent Orange and certain other toxins during military service.”
Due to this designation, veterans with Parkinson’s who were exposed to these toxins are automatically eligible to receive health care and disability benefits from the VA.
Beck of the Parkinson’s Foundation said it makes sense that there could be a link between PD and military service.
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“Although I have not seen a report of a direct increase in PD after military service, given the environmental exposures of many of our service members – head trauma, solvent exposure, etc. – it would not surprise me to see a higher prevalence of PD among veterans,” he told Fox News Digital.
Kelm noted that although the U.S. veteran population is getting smaller, the Parkinson’s rate within the community is “increasing significantly.”
Kelm and his family are pictured at the Minnesota Twins game on Parkinson’s Awareness Day at Target Field. (Mark Kelm)
He told Fox News Digital, “I suffered two TBIs (traumatic brain injuries) in service, which the VA believes likely contributed to my Parkinson’s, along with chemical exposure.”
The Parkinson’s Foundation partnered with the VA in 2020 in an effort to improve the health, well-being and quality of life for veterans with PD and their loved ones.
Breaking the stigma
Many military veterans with Parkinson’s find it difficult to bring themselves to ask for help after so many years of supporting others. This was the case for Kelm after his diagnosis.
“As a chaplain, my job was for people to come to me — not for me to seek them out.”
“I was in a pretty dark place at first,” he recalled. “As a chaplain, my job was for people to come to me — not for me to seek them out.”
A doctor at Struthers Parkinson’s Center in Minnesota recognized that Kelm needed help and physically walked him to a psychologist’s office.
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“I sat down and started talking, and it really was my awakening — an awareness of how much I needed to listen to another person and have them sort through things.”
The psychologist helped Kelm realize that he could continue to serve others while also allowing others to serve him.
Second from right, Kelm is pictured during a mission trip to Uganda, during which the group helped to build a school for women. (Mark Kelm)
Over time, people in the Parkinson’s community began calling on Kelm to help others with young-onset PD who had recently been diagnosed.
“I want to reach out to as many people as possible and get them the help they need to live the best quality of life that they can,” he said.
“I want to let them know that there is hope. It’s not all darkness — there is light. They still have a lot of life to live.”
Guided by hope and faith
During the harder days, Kelm finds encouragement and comfort in his faith.
“It’s the belief that no matter what happens, I don’t have to fear, because I know God is is with me,” he said.
“I have hope that as my body becomes weaker, God’s strength will become more and more evident.”
“I have hope that as my body becomes weaker, God’s strength will become more and more evident.”
Kelm said he is also optimistic that headway is being made toward improved Parkinson’s treatments and a future cure.
He is optimistic, said Kelm, that headway is being made toward improved Parkinson’s treatments and a future cure. “The needle’s moving in the right direction,” he said. (Mark Kelm)
He is encouraged by the increases in fundraising and research.
“I’m hoping that I get to live until I’m 80 and chase grandkids around. But for that to happen, we’re going to have to do the research, so that science can point us in the right direction.”
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For others who are newly diagnosed, Kelm urges them to seek help and build a network — which may include a counselor or therapist, religious leaders, doctors, physical therapists or a speech therapist.
“Allow others to help you,” he encouraged. “It’s hard at first. You might think you can fight the disease and manage the struggle on your own. But even Jesus had help carrying the cross.”
For veterans with Parkinson’s, Kelm urges them to seek support from the VA.
“I’m hoping that I get to live until I’m 80 and chase grandkids around,” said Kelm, who is pictured with his family. “But for that to happen, we’re going to have to do the research, so that science can point us in the right direction.” (Mark Kelm)
“Look around, ask and talk to others, and you will find dedicated people who will allow you to flourish as you live with your Parkinson’s disease.”
Beck echoed the importance of being open about a diagnosis to “help bring Parkinson’s out of the shadows … It can be a difficult first step, but is worth it in the end,” he said.
“Loved ones will often already know something is amiss. Sharing your PD diagnosis with them will often result in relief at knowing what is wrong, and the opening of tremendous support.”
People can call the Parkinson’s Foundation’s free helpline at 1-800-473-4636, or can visit parkinson.org or parkinson.org/veterans for information about where to get support.
Fox News Digital reached out to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs requesting additional comment.
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A young woman who started vaping at the age of 15 has been given just 18 months to live — after being diagnosed with lung cancer in her early 20s.
Kayley Boda, 22, of Manchester, in the United Kingdom, was engaging in heavy vaping on a regular basis when she started coughing up a brown substance with “grainy bits” in it in January 2025, news agency SWNS reported.
The retail assistant said doctors turned her away eight times, telling her she had a chest infection — until she began coughing up blood.
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After seven biopsies, Boda was diagnosed with lung cancer. She underwent surgery to remove the lower lobe of her right lung, as well as chemotherapy — and in February 2026, got the all-clear, the same source reported.
Two months later, though, doctors said the cancer had come back in the pleural lining. Now she’s been given 18 months to live.
Kayley Boda, 22, is shown in the hospital. She started coughing up a brown substance with “grainy bits” in January 2025, she said. She had been vaping since the age of 15. (SWNS)
The young woman has now issued a warning to others to be aware of the dangers of vaping.
Boda said she smoked a bit as a young teenager. She took up vaping after that.
Then, “a few months after I switched from reusable vapes to disposable ones, I started coughing up brown, grainy mucus,” as SWNS reported.
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“Doctors turned me away eight times with a chest infection. … Then I started coughing up blood, so they did an X-ray and found a shadow on my lung,” she added.
“They told me they were 99% sure, [since I was] so young, that it wasn’t cancer, so not to worry about it. When I got the results back, and they told me it was lung cancer, it felt so surreal.”
Boda said she was “very naive” before her diagnosis and thought that “something like this would never happen to me.”
She said that she had surgery to remove half of her right lung.
“After the surgery, I started chemo and I had a terrible reaction to it. I couldn’t lift my head up. I was throwing up blood. I was urinating blood. I couldn’t eat. I couldn’t sleep.”
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She said that when she got the “all clear [in Feb. 2026], it felt amazing, but just two months later I was told the cancer had come back, and I have 18 months to live.”
She added, “I’m 22. This isn’t meant to happen to somebody my age.”
“Stay off the vapes because they will catch up with you.”
She blames her cancer on vaping, she said.
“My symptoms started a few months after I started disposable vapes, and there’s no lung cancer in my family,” she said. “I haven’t vaped for three months, I’ve made my partner stop, I’ve made my mom stop, I’m urging all my friends to stop. Stay off the vapes,” she continued, “because they will catch up with you.”
When doctors did an X-ray, they found a shadow on Boda’s right lung. She was later diagnosed with lung cancer and has undergone surgery to remove the lower lobe of her right lung, as well as chemotherapy. (SWNS)
She said she’d been using reusable vapes since the age of 15 and began using disposable vapes a few months before her cancer symptoms started.
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In November 2024, when she developed a rash all over her body, doctors said it could have been due to shingles, chicken pox or scabies, she told SWNS.
‘Nothing worked’
“I got treated for all three, and nothing worked,” Boda said. “It got to the point where I was cutting myself from scratching so hard.”
A few months after that, she began coughing up a dark brown mucus, with “grainy bits, the consistency of sugar, in it,” she said. When the coughing continued, she visited the doctor’s office, but was told it could be scarring from pneumonia or a chest infection, she also said.
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It wasn’t until March 2025 that she began coughing up bright red blood. At that point, doctors gave her a chest X-ray and told her they’d found a shadow on her lower right lung.
Over the next four months, she had seven biopsies as doctors took samples from the “shadow.” In August, when she went to get the results, she was told she had stage one lung cancer.
Boda is shown in the hospital. She was diagnosed with lung cancer and had surgery to remove the lower lobe of her right lung, as well as chemotherapy. (SWNS)
In September 2025, she had surgery to remove the lower lobe of her right lung, and the surrounding lymph nodes. During the surgery, doctors upstaged her cancer from stage one to stage three after finding cancer in six surrounding lymph nodes, she said.
Following the surgery, Boda was unable to breathe properly and had to learn to walk all over again.
“The oncologist said this is so rare.”
After finishing chemotherapy in February 2026, Kayley was given the all clear, leaving her feeling elated.
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However, just a month after that, she began experiencing extreme chest pains and was told by doctors she had a pleural effusion — a build-up of fluid in the lungs. She had the fluid removed, but when doctors tested it, they discovered her cancer had returned to the pleural lining of her lungs, giving her 18 months to live.
“The oncologist said this is so rare, and usually something they see in patients that are 80 years old,” she said, as SWNS reported.
Increasingly, vacation hot spots are enforcing strict bans on the use of e-cigarettes in public venues. (iStock)
Boda claimed that doctors were unable to pin her cancer to a specific cause — but told her that smoking and vaping definitely didn’t help.
Since her diagnosis, she has stopped and is urging others to stop, too.
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She’s hoping to raise the thousands of dollars needed for treatment to try to prolong her life, she said.
Last year, Fox News Digital reported on the case of a Pennsylvania woman, 26, who said she vaped for just one year before her lungs collapsed. She was 22 when she took up the habit, she said in an interview.
“Everybody warned me about it, but I didn’t listen — I wish that I did,” she said.
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Dr. David Campbell, clinical director and program director at Recover Together Bend in Oregon, told Fox News Digital at that time that signs of collapsed lungs include sharp chest or shoulder pain, shortness of breath and difficulty breathing.
Lung issues are just one of the many health issues linked to vaping, he warned. The habit can also increase the risk of heart disease and stroke, as well as exposure to harmful heavy metals.
Melissa Rudy of Fox News Digital contributed reporting.
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The key to feeling better in a fast, overstimulated world might be surprisingly simple: Live a little more like your grandparents.
A growing social media trend, dubbed “nonnamaxxing,” draws inspiration from the slower, more intentional rhythms associated with an Italian grandmother.
The lifestyle is often linked to activities like preparing home-cooked meals, spending time outdoors and making meaningful connections.
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“Nonnamaxxing is a 2026 trend that embraces the slower, more intentional lifestyle of an Italian grandmother (a Nonna). Think cooking from scratch, long family meals, daily walks, gardening and less screen time,” Erin Palinski-Wade, a New Jersey-based registered dietitian, told Fox News Digital.
Nonnamaxxing, derived from the name for an Italian grandmother, is a trend that incorporates lifestyle habits hundreds of years in the making. (iStock)
Stepping away from screens and toward real-world interaction can have measurable benefits, according to California-based psychotherapist Laurie Singer.
“We know that interacting with others in person, rather than spending time on screens, significantly improves mental health,” she told Fox News Digital, adding that social media often fuels comparison and lowers self-esteem.
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Living more like previous generations isn’t purely driven by nostalgia. Cooking meals from scratch, for example, has been linked to better nutrition and more mindful eating patterns.
Adopting traditional mealtime habits can improve diet quality and support both physical and mental health, especially when meals are shared regularly with others, Palinski-Wade noted.
One longevity expert stresses that staying healthy isn’t just about food — it’s also about joy and community. (iStock)
There’s also a psychological benefit to slowing down and focusing on one task at a time. Anxiety often stems from unfinished or avoided tasks, Singer noted, and engaging in hands-on activities can counteract that.
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“Nonnamaxxing encourages us to be present around a task, like gardening, baking or knitting, or just taking a mindful walk, that delivers something ‘real,’” she said.
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Palinski-Wade cautions against turning the trend into another source of pressure, noting that a traditional “nonna” lifestyle often assumes a different pace of life.
The key, she said, is adapting the mindset, not replicating it perfectly.
Nonnamaxxing, derived from the name for an Italian grandmother, is a trend that incorporates lifestyle habits hundreds of years in the making. (iStock)
The goal is to reintroduce small, intentional moments that make you feel better.
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That might mean prioritizing a few shared meals each week, taking a walk without your phone or setting aside time for a simple hobby, the expert recommended.
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Singer added, “Having a positive place to escape to, through whatever activities speak to us and make us happy, isn’t generational – it’s human.”
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Feeling lonely may take a toll on older adults’ memory — but it may not speed up cognitive decline, according to a new study.
Researchers from Colombia, Spain and Sweden analyzed data from more than 10,000 adults ages 65 to 94 across 12 European countries and found those who reported higher levels of loneliness did worse on memory tests at the start of the study, according to research published this month in the journal Aging & Mental Health.
Over a seven-year period, however, memory decline occurred at a similar rate regardless of how lonely participants felt.
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“The finding that loneliness significantly impacted memory, but not the speed of decline in memory over time was a surprising outcome,” lead author Dr. Luis Carlos Venegas-Sanabria of the School of Medicine and Health Sciences at the Universidad del Rosario said in a statement.
Loneliness may be linked to memory performance in older adults, a new study suggests. (iStock)
“It suggests that loneliness may play a more prominent role in the initial state of memory than in its progressive decline,” Venegas-Sanabria said, adding that the findings highlight the importance of addressing loneliness as a factor in cognitive performance.
The findings add to debate about whether loneliness contributes to dementia risk. While loneliness and social isolation are often considered risk factors for cognitive decline, research results have been mixed.
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The study looked at data from the long-running Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), which tracked 10,217 older adults between 2012 and 2019. Participants were asked to recall words immediately and after a delay to measure memory performance.
Social isolation and loneliness could play a surprising role in cognitive health among seniors. (iStock)
Loneliness was assessed using three questions about how often participants felt isolated, left out or lacking companionship.
About 8% of participants reported high levels of loneliness at the outset. That group tended to be older, more likely to be female and more likely to have conditions such as depression.
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Researchers found that those with higher loneliness had lower scores on both immediate and delayed memory tests at baseline. Still, all groups — regardless of loneliness level — experienced similar declines in memory over time.
The results suggest loneliness may not directly accelerate the progression of memory loss, though it remains linked to poorer cognitive performance overall.
Researchers look at a brain scan at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)
Experts warn, however, that the findings should not be interpreted to mean loneliness is harmless.
“The finding that lonely older adults start with worse memory but don’t decline faster is actually the most interesting part of the paper, and I think it’s easy to misread,” said Jordan Weiss, Ph.D., a scientific advisor and aging expert at Assisted Living Magazine and a professor at NYU Grossman School of Medicine.
“It likely means loneliness does its damage earlier in life, well before people show up in a study like this at 65-plus,” Weiss told Fox News Digital.
By older age, long-term social patterns may already be established, making it harder to detect when the effects of loneliness first took hold, an aging expert says. (iStock)
He suggested that by older age, long-term social patterns may already be established, making it harder to detect when the effects of loneliness first took hold.
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“By the time you’re measuring someone in their late 60s, decades of social connection patterns are already baked in,” he said.
Weiss, who was not involved in the research, added that loneliness may coincide with other health conditions, and noted that participants who felt more isolated also had higher rates of depression, high-blood pressure and diabetes. The link, he said, may reflect a cluster of health risks rather than a direct cause.
“While they can go hand-in-hand, it’s not clear that loneliness contributes to dementia,” a psychotherapist says. (iStock)
Amy Morin, a Florida-based psychotherapist and author, said the findings reflect a broader pattern in research on loneliness and brain health, and that the relationship may be more complex than it appears.
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“The evidence shows there’s a link between loneliness and cognitive decline but there’s no direct evidence of a cause and effect relationship,” she said. “So while they can go hand-in-hand, it’s not clear that loneliness contributes to dementia.”
Morin added that loneliness, which can fluctuate, may not be the root of the problem, but rather a symptom of other underlying mental or physical health issues.
Researchers suggested screening for loneliness be incorporated into routine cognitive assessments as one way to support healthy aging. (iStock)
She said staying socially and mentally engaged is crucial for overall brain health.
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“It’s important to be proactive about social activities,” Morin said. “Joining a book club, having coffee with a friend, or attending faith-based services can be a powerful way to maintain connections in older age.”
The researchers also suggested screening for loneliness be incorporated into routine cognitive assessments as one way to support healthy aging.
Fox News Digital reached out to the researchers for comment.
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