A senior from Winnipeg who lives with Parkinson’s disease has just finished up a 60-day Great Lakes sailing trip aimed at raising awareness about living with the disease.

Steve Van Vlaenderenand his partner, Darlene Hildebrand, were in Sudbury Wednesday to talk about their journey.

"I had dreamed about sailing the great lakes all my life." said Van Vlaenderen.

He bought his sailboat in 2010 and was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease the next year, but that didn’t stop him and Hildebrand from making his dream a reality.

"The lesson that I've learned in sailing is that you don't let Parkinson's control your life, you have to control Parkinson's. And sailing is the same way, you have to adjust your sails, you have to change your plan, and you have to accept the conditions that come your way." said Van Vlaenderen.

"I don't think I realized how much it did mean to him, until we came under the bridge. We realized we had fulfilled, it was leg one, but that we had done it!" said Hildebrand.

Now that Steve's dream has come true, the two avid sailors plan to continue with a second Great Lakes journey next summer.

"We'll start off in June in Sarnia, and then we will travel down the Detroit River system to Lake Erie, up Lake Erie to Toronto, to Windsor, and then through Lake Ontario up to Kingston, and finally up to Montreal." said Hildebrand.

While in the Sudbury area, Steve and Darlene partnered up with a local chapter of Parkinson Canada and they talked to people dealing with the disease.

Estelle Joliat is the Northern Ontario community development coordinator for Parkinson Canada.

"There are a 100,000 Canadians living with Parkinson's, 25 people today will get diagnosed with Parkinson's.” said Joliat.

Steve says this trip is teaching him a lot about living with Parkinson's.

"It has allowed me to try to encourage people to continue their life, to pursue their dreams. Whatever it is, go for it, don't let the disease slow you down." said Van Vlaenderen.

Parkinson Canada is staging a fundraiser in Greater Sudbury this weekend, the 28th annual Parkinson’s SuperWalk.

It starts Saturday morning at 10am.