COMMUNITY

VALUABLE AND VARIED INSIGHTS

Being diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease, I decided to collect some stories from my Dumfries PD group, writes subscriber Miller Caldwell.

I set parameters. There were six in total.

1. What did you do before you were diagnosed?

2. How did you react to being told you had the disease?

3. Were you given additional aids at work?

4. What are you still able to do?

5. What can’t you do anymore?

6. Finally, tell me something unusual about yourself, in a paragraph entitled Curious Facts.

I chose topics numbers 1 and 6, as I felt they gave something of some background to each contributor, which would be different. And they were. One had married Miss France, and another lived in seven homes on one street!

Parkinson’s disease has more than 40 symptoms. So I knew the stories would not be the same. From the Dumfries group, I learned that some had relatives in Australia and the USA with the disease. They would be keen to contribute. I then saw the possibility of this being an international book. I contacted Parky groups in the Netherlands, South Africa, many parts of the UK, Bahrain, and Canada. In good time, each replied, and so I have 30 contributors, including a Glasgow Herald prize-winning journalist who interviewed a member of the Dundee University Parkinson’s research group. Then, as a surprise, I received Etcetera, my school magazine, which had a photo of a pupil who was now a Professor at Dundee University, involved in finding cures for the many symptoms of Parkinson’s. I just had to contact Professor Miratul M. K. Muqit FRSE, FMedSci, FRCP, Professor of Experimental Neurology, University of Dundee. He was thrilled to hear about this book, as most consultants were instrumental in finding a cure for each patient and not spending time to assess how the patient was experiencing the diagnosis. Miratul was delighted to give me a Foreword and, along with two of his team, gave me their experiences with curing the disease.