I have two good friends and one happened to be a GP and the other is a practice nurse, whose husband has PD. And the GP friend said to me, You need information, it is better to know the worst than to not kno. And so she put me in touch with the Parkinson’s Disease Association, who were very good. They sent me little bits of information as I requested them. They didn’t bombard me with information which would’ve been a mistake I think. And little by little I found out about PD, still having no certain diagnosis. But the more I read and the more I discovered the more sure I was that this was my problem.

The practice nurse friend lent me a book by an American who had had PD for ten years before she wrote it. And her circumstances were in some ways quite similar to mine, in that she had to give up teaching because of it and the emergence of her symptoms were similar to mine. But she was so positive, so upbeat, so enjoy every minut sort of person that she made me stop being afraid and helped me to cope with it. She gave very good advice such as see a physiotherapist, get some exercises to keep as fit as you can. And after a year I went to see the neurologist again and I said to him, I want a diagnosis. I want to know. I don’t want to be unsure about what’s wrong with m. And he said, Yes I’m sure that you’re right. It is P. And that was five years ago almost exactly to the day. And I’ve joined the local Parkinson’s Disease Society. I’ve met some wonderful people and I think that being able to help them has helped me enormously.

I’m very lucky in that my symptoms are quite small at the moment.My arms don’t swing when I walk.I have problems with my balance. I have various different internal problems. But I can still speak. I can still walk.I can still with effort throw a dinner party. And I enjoy my grandchildren enormously.They wear me out but they wear everyone out.So that’s perfectly normal.The future no one knows but it is much more positive now than it was ten years ago.So I have everything to look forward to I think.

I first suspected there was a problem because my arms didn’t swing and that was about six years ago. And I didn’t do anything about it of course for a while. But eventually I spoke to my sister and she said, Go and see your G. So I did and the GP said, I think I’m going to send you to see a neurologist.

And I went to see a neurologist quite quickly. And I went alone which was a mistake I think. And he said that he thought it was possible that I had PD. But the only way to be sure was to let the time pass and let the various different problems emerge. So I came home shaking, absolutely terrified. And my husband didn’t want to know, bless him. I think that’s a male normal reaction. And so I coped with it initially without knowing what was wrong with me, afraid of what it might be and with very little support which was very difficult.