The author of The Rivalry has revealed that the success of the TV adaptation led to her receiving specialist help to treat Parkinson’s disease.

Rachel Reid, 45, was diagnosed with the disease in the summer of 2023, around the same time she was contacted about adapting her book series for the screen.

“The Rivalry,” which centers on an illicit same-sex relationship between two hockey players, has become one of the most talked about new TV shows in recent weeks.

in a Accepted a variety show interview, The Canadian author explained that a Parkinson’s expert contacted her after learning of her diagnosis during a promotional interview for the series.

Reed said her subsequent appointment with a neurologist “could have changed my situation because I wasn’t really getting the treatment that I should have been getting.”

Reed published her first book in the Game Changers series in 2018.

Five more books followed, and the television version quickly became a sensation when it launched in North America at the end of November.

The series, adapted and directed by Jacob Tierney, is set to air on January 10 in the UK on Sky and the streaming service Now.

Reed told Variety that the attention the show has received has produced “amazing things.”

“Jacob was on CNN a few weeks ago. For whatever reason, the interviewer asked him about my Parkinson’s disease diagnosis,” she recalled.

“I thought it was a little weird, but the next day one of the top Parkinson’s disease experts in the world contacted me and asked if he could help me.”

Reed explained: “I’ve never spoken to a Parkinson’s specialist. Because I live in a very small place, I’ve been waiting here for five years.

“Now he’s found me a Parkinson’s specialist, a neurologist, and I have an appointment in a few weeks. That might change my situation because I’m not really getting the treatment that I should be getting.

“He also told me how to change my medication so I could sleep, because I never sleep. This change allowed me to sleep through the night, which really helped with my writing.”

Reed said her Parkinson’s disease made it difficult for her to write “because I could barely control a mouse.”

“I can’t type for very long,” she continued. “It’s hard for me to sit in a chair for long periods of time. I need to find new ways of writing.

“I don’t know if it’s going to be speech-to-text. I don’t know if I can write like this. It feels unnatural, but I need to figure something out because it’s taking me a long time to write now.”

Rivalry tells the story of hockey players Sean and Elijah, played by Hudson Williams and Connor Story.

The two were connected by competition and ambition, but began a secret romance that blossomed into a relationship that lasted for several years.

Parkinson’s disease is a progressive disease that gets worse over time.

People with this disease have too little of the chemical dopamine in their brains because some of the nerve cells that make dopamine have stopped working.

• Symptoms include:
• Parts of the body tremble involuntarily
• slow movement
• Muscles are stiff and inflexible

Source: Parkinson’s UK