Living with someone who has Parkinson's disease is a struggle

October 20, 2016   DAVID BURROUGHS

Taranaki Parkinson's Society Community educator Adell Morton and yoga teacher Catherine O'Neil take a class for people with the condition, to help with their movement.

Ngaire Riley knows the struggle of living with Parkinson's disease first hand - she helped her husband John with it for 20 years before he died in April.

"It's an incredibly difficult disease to live with for the person but it's also incredibly demanding of the family and career. It's a hard road to travel," she said.

Riley, the deputy chairwoman of the Taranaki Parkinson's Society, said the hardest part was the way the disease affected her husband's smile.

"You get that deadpan face in Parkinson's... you have to physically choose to be cheerful," she said.

"But the other thing is that it affects people so differently, there's not one set of symptoms for everyone."

Her husband could continue to walk and play with their grandchildren, but was on purèed food and had trouble talking.

"He'd been a school principal so his ability as an incredibly dynamic speaker was completely taken away from him," she said.

"But other people can talk, it's a tricky disease."

Community educator Adell Morton said while there was about 130 people involved with the Society in Taranaki, nationally one in every 500 people suffered from the condition and she estimated the number of people in the region could be closer to 250.

Common symptoms include trembling and shaking, slow movements, poor balance and altered speech.

"It's interesting because only two thirds of people actually have that tremor so only about two thirds are visible to the rest of the population," Morton said.

"So there's the one third of patients who people just wouldn't know by looking at them, because they don't have that exterior symptom."

As part of Parkinson's awareness week from November 1 to 7, Riley and Morton will be running a stall in the Centre City Shopping Centre to give people an opportunity to ask questions about the condition.

They will also open up their monthly walk along the Coastal Walkway, which the society runs along with yoga classes and other social events.

The walk will start at the Buller St carpark at East End, at 9am on Friday November 4.

 - Stuff

http://www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/news/midweek/85557678/living-with-someone-who-has-parkinsons-disease-is-a-struggle