Steve Hammoor, “Cool Beans and Hamm”

From his first experience with UC Health, Steve Hammoor has been a team player.

“It’s all about setting goals and being positive,” he said. “From my first appointment with Dr. Duker, I said ‘Put me in coach’ and it’s worked out very well ever since.”  

Hammoor first saw UC Health neurologist Andrew Duker, MD, in 2012, for a second opinion that turned into a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease. He credits his family, especially his wife Becky, as being his rock and his motivators.

But he’s built an even bigger team along the way.

To support Parkinson’s research and education, Hammoor’s Sunflower Rev it Up Walk/Ride/Run team, “Cool Beans and Hamm” has been a leading fundraiser since 2015. Raising $35,570 in 2019 alone, they’ve been the top fundraising team for the past three years.

“Sunflower is a celebration,” he said. “Our families, our friends, all of us coming together to support the people with Parkinson’s disease and support the cause of research. And it’s a lot of fun.”

Hammoor is also involved with the James J. and Joan A. Gardner Family Center for Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders as a research participant.

He hopes his participation in the Parkinson’s Progression Marker Initiative, a global observational study on Parkinson’s progression led locally by center director Alberto Espay, MD, will lead to a greater understanding and more personalized treatment for the disease.

Of Espay’s own biomarker study, Hammoor credits Espay and the entire UC Gardner Neuroscience Institute team with having “a whole different mindset” around Parkinson’s disease.

“It’s a pretty big endeavor,” he said. “We have some of the best Parkinson’s physicians here in Cincinnati. There’s no wonder pill that’s going to do it for this disease. It’s going to be research and education that get us there.”

This year’s Sunflower Rev it Up, on Sept. 13, 2020, will be an entirely virtual experience. To learn more and register, visit sunflowerrev.org.