Parkinson’s and the public

A big week for boosting understanding

This is going to be an important week for the public perception of Parkinson’s, the world’s fastest growing neurological condition. On Tuesday evening ITV will broadcast a one hour documentary in primetime called Paxman: Putting Up With Parkinson’s. Knowing Jeremy a little I expect the programme to be grumpy, honest and wise. I’m particularly looking forward to seeing the nemesis of Michael Howard trying out a dance class for people with Parkinson’s, as recommended by our mutual friend Paul Mayhew-Archer.

As a curtain-raiser to the documentary BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme invited on me and that great broadcaster Mark Mardell, who has just revealed his own Parkinson’s diagnosis, to discuss living with the condition. Waking early and hearing the huge breaking news about the government’s u-turn on the 45p income tax rate I assumed that the item would be dropped. Which would have been a pity because I had fired up the whizzy BBC Raspberry Pi “broadcasting over IP” kit I had not used for a year and it seemed to be working.

Mark Mardell, former BBC North America Editor and Radio 4 presenter, revealed recently he has Parkinson’s

But no, at around 0847 there was Justin Webb introducing me and Mark, and with his usual skill coaxing reflections out of us about our frustrations with the way our symptoms stopped us doing what we used to do without thinking. It turned out that we both now found typing very difficult and, while I have a tremor and drag my right foot while walking, Mark finds his voice getting weaker through the day and can’t drive.

(Listen here to the item, starting at 2.47.55)

But what we also share is a determination to just get on with life as best we can and not let Parkinson’s get in the way more than it needs to. “I keep saying to people it's still me inside,” Mark said. “It'll take me twice as long to cook the tea. It'll take me twice as long to get dressed. It'll take me too long to get out of the car - put up with it, it’s me now.”

Maybe Tuesday night’s documentary won’t be quite as positive. Unlike me, I’m not entirely sure that Jeremy Paxman would describe himself as a glass half full person. Nevertheless, by choosing to go public with the details of what for many is still a condition they hide from their employers and friends, he is doing all of us with Parkinson’s a service. The hope must be that his documentary will be far more effective than any advertising campaign in educating the wider public about the disease and getting people afflicted by it the help they need.