Iceland's Football Team Unite to Educate The World about Parkinson's

Iceland became European champion of hearts at the European Football Championship 2016 in France. The small Scandinavian nation thrilled fans around the world. But unfortunately, it also occupies a top spot in another field: Iceland has the second highest mortality rate for the nervous disease Parkinson's worldwide. 

Together with the Icelandic Parkinson's association, Parkinsonsamtökin, and the football association, KSÍ, as an exclusive partner, Grey sports, part of Grey Germany, has turned the national players into ambassadors for the good cause: the "Sons of Solidarity". 

"Sons of Solidarity" consciously plays with the formation of Icelandic male names that end in "-son" and the name of the disease: ParkinSON. 

The kick-off of the campaign took place on 7 June 2018: In the last international match before the World Cup against Ghana, the players did not run as SIGURDSSON, FINNBOGASON and Co., but showed their solidarity with a uniform jersey called PARKINSON on the back. 

During the hymns, they stood arm in arm with Parkinson's patients in the square. A specially produced trailer informed the people in the stadium and on the TV screens about the campaign. 

In addition to many celebrities, Iceland's President Guðni Th. Jóhannesson also supports the action, which proclaimed himself on "social media" as a "Son of Solidarity". 

The aim of the campaign is to generate more attention and not least donations. To achieve this, the campaign will continue to be rolled out: from national TV appearances to the microsite with emotional home stories where patients themselves will be portrayed sharing their stories with the rest of the world. The donations go to a care center for Parkinson's patients in Iceland. 

"Special thanks go to the KSÍ football association and the national team, which is using its worldwide popularity to exclusively support this good cause," commented Erna Guðmundsdóttir of the Icelandic Parkinson Association. 

Grey Germany CEO Dickjan Poppema adds: "A great action from Grey sports, which shows that the unifying power of sport knows no bounds".