For 19-years, viewers have counted on Rob Peppers to deliver the forecast on 13 News.
But for the past eight years, Rob’s shared more than the weather with all of us. He’s also shared his fight against Parkinson’s disease. The journey has led Rob to the decision that, for the sake of his health, he will leave an on-air position.
For Rob, his career has been a dream come true. He says he remembers as a child listening to the radio and being so disappointed in hearing a snow storm was going to miss his hometown of Salina. That passion continued into college and his first job at a local station in Salina. He recalls doing those first forecasts sticking magnets to a board and taping an hour in advance.
In 1988, Rob hit what he considered the big time – a job at WIBW-TV. Former Chief Meteorologist Dave Relihan recalls that Rob blew everyone away his first time on the air. He says rather than first-time nerves or stumbles, Rob was perfect, “and he’s been pretty much perfect his entire career.”
It all seemed perfect until 1995, when, at age 29, Rob noticed a twitching in his finger during a softball game. It led to a life-changing diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease. Still, it wasn’t a diagnosis Rob shared until 1999, when the symptoms became too much to hide.
Rob says he tried to hide it at first because he didn’t know how people would react. He says TV is known as a “pretty people’s” business, and he was afraid that if people saw something was wrong, they would change the channel. Instead, Rob says he got the opposite reaction with an outpouring of support from the public.
That support was never more important to Rob than in March of 2002. Rob underwent surgery to receive deep brain stimulation. Devices implanted in his chest connect to electrodes in the brain. The impulses help control his Parkinsons symptoms. Rob allowed cameras into his doctor appointments and the operating room.
Rob says it wasn’t a conscious decision to do it on TV or do it in private. He says he merely wanted people to see it’s an awful disease that does terrible things to people, but that there was also hope.
Rob says, in a lot of ways, the surgery has given him his life back. But as life goes on, so, too, does his disease. Rob says the surgery was more or less a stop-gap measure, not a cure.
“We still need a cure,” he says.
Over the last six months to a year, Rob says his symptoms have steadily gotten worse. He says he has some trouble walking at times and he’s finding he has more trouble with situations he normally wouldn’t at work.
That includes being on camera. When the red light goes on, 10- to 20-thousand people are watching, and that can be stressful.
Rob says if you watch, the video tells the story. He says anytime a camera is on, it creates a stressful situation for him, and he can’t control the shaking Parkinsons causes. Parkinsons and stress, he says, is a bad combination, and being in severe weather season when lives are at stake, he says he feels a responsibility to hand hand it off to those better capable of handling the situation.
For the sake of his health, Rob will step off-camera and go to work full-time in WIBW-TV’s business office. But you’ll still see him from time to time, filling in for Jeremy Goodwin, Candice Sorensen and Drew Switzer, and staying in the thick of the action.
“I’ll still be able to chase storms which is big for me!” Rob says.
Rob says his new position will lower his stress and give him an eight to four schedule, so he can get a good night’s sleep. After eight years of fighting Parkinsons in the public eye, Rob says he’ll sign off knowing how much support is out there.
“I wish I could go to every person who has sent a card or a letter,” he says. “It’s amazing the support I’ve received. If I could say one thing it would be thank you for all you’ve done.”
The Future of Parkinson’s Treatment and Research
Twelve years, lots of pills and one major surgery since his diagnosis with Parkinson’s Disease, Rob Peppers refuses to give up hope. He says while it is a frustrating disease in many ways, he believes the overall picture down the road is bright.
Experts agree.
“There is a lot of fear,” says Cotton-O’Neil Neurologist Dr. Ernie Swanson. “But for the vast majority of people, there are a lot of options, those options are improving year by year and the long-term prognosis is good.”
Swanson says some of the biggest advances are in new medications. The neurotransmitter dopamine is reduced in Parkinsons patients. The newer meds act on the brain in a way that more closely mimics what dopamine would do naturally. Swanson says the more that can be done, “the more we can delay the process and reduce side effects people have.”
The other challenge comes in diagnosing Parkinsons. Swanson says new tests have been developed to help doctors catch it earlier. He says many times, when patients are diagnosed, there are already changes in the brain. He says that means doctors are seeing a process that’s already been going on for five or six years. He says the earlier Parkinsons can be diagnosed, the earlier treatment can start treatment and the better patients will do.
Of course, being aware of a disease is the first step in battling it. On that front, Swanson agrees Rob has made a difference.
“His position, his recognition, has meant a lot to a lot of people both with Parkinsons disease and without it,” he said. “He’s had a huge impact on people being aware of Parkinsons in Kansas.”
But Rob says it’s the people who’ve had the bigger impact on him.
“I’m just me trying to live my life,” Rob says. “A lot of people are suffering a lot more than me. I feel I represent them when I’m on camera.”
