Recent media coverage and special events
Glitzy 20s Fundraising Ball!
Carers Oxfordshire Dignity in Care Award
Gina Hadley runs Marathon Marathon
Parkinson's at Public Health Film Festival 2018
Reading University honours collaboration
Our Chair honoured by Open University
Oxford Branch at London conference
Brain Awareness Week 2018
Layla Moran MP visits our exercise and voice classes
Parkinson's advocacy at 10 Downing Street
The funny side of Parkinson's in the media
Proceedings now online!Our patient-led conference
The Great Gatsby Ball 2019
Our member David Casey and his son Chris staged a fundraising Roaring Twenties-themed ball to raise money for Parkinson's UK. The glitzy event was held at Eynsham Hall on 13th April 2019. This spectacular event, with over 90 guests, raised an amazing total of around £4000 through ticket sales and an auction of gifts.
Chris is also running the London Marathon on 28th April to raise funds, and you can donate to his amazing effort at Christopher's fundraising site using this link.
Our Chair receives Carers Oxfordshire award
At the Oxfordshire Caring Matters conference on 30th November 2018, our Chair was honoured to be joint winner of the Josie's Award for "someone making an exceptional difference to dignity in care". The awards, along with several others for Dignity in Care, were presented in a heartwarming celebration of top-quality care activity and initiatives, hosted by Paul Mayhew-Archer.
Running the Marathon Marathon (Μαραθωνιοσ Δρομοσ)
Gina Hadley - a neurology lecturer in Oxford - has recently completed a very special marathon run, following the historic course from Marathon to Athens. She has asked that any donations you may wish to make should go to the Oxford Branch, using our Virgin Money Giving site.
Parkinson's featured at Public Health Film Festival 2018
As part of this year's Public Health Film Festival in Oxford, there was a public screening on Saturday 8th December at 11am of Buddy Joe, a short animated film taking an unusual look at Parkinson's. After the film there was an interesting discussion with the director, Julien David. Our Chair, Sally Bromley, was also on the discussion panel.
Reading University celebrates collaboration
Sally went to Reading University on 19th June for their Research Engagement and Impact Awards at the invitation of Dr Patrick Lewis. Patrick had submitted his contribution to our Parkinsons's 200 Plus conference and linked events as an example of how Reading researchers can inform the public about research. We were thrilled that his submission won the award in the Inform category.
Open University honours our Chair
On 21st April the Open University conferred the honorary degree of Master of the University on our Chair, Sally Bromley. The degree ceremony, one of 12 taking place around the country this year, took place in Poole's Lighthouse Arts Centre. You can read more about this in the Oxford Mail.
To round off a fine day of Parkinson's awareness-raising, there was a showing of Sue Wylie's fascinating short film "Kinetics".
Brain Awareness Week, March 2018
As part of this global initiative, Oxford University's Department of Neuroscience staged a stimulating series of public events including talks and a film. You can find more about the global campaign on the Dana Foundation's website.
The image you see to the right is an artwork by Rebecca Ivatts reflecting on the relationship between Parkinson's, its symptoms and various parts of the brain. It was on display at the Ashmolean Museum on Saturday 17th March as part of a wonderful event on the effect of art on the brain, including a talk by Zoi Kapoula of the Université Paris Descartes.
Our Chair speaks at London conference
On 16th March 2018, Sally gave a talk on Learning from Lived Experience at a conference focusing on the newly updated NICE quality guidelines for Parkinson's. Several speakers, including Sally, strongly emphasised the critical importance of close collaboration between PwP and medical professionals. Find full details of Sally's talk and related resources here.
Layla Moran MP visits our exercise and voice classes
We were excited that our local MP Layla Moran (Lib Dem) visited our voice class and Big Bold and Balance exercise class on Friday 17th November 2018. Layla is MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, and is her party's science and education spokesperson.
The funny side of Parkinson's in the media
We think you will enjoy this short amusing article on Parkinson's in the Daily Express, written by Paul Mayhew-Archer. It is always good to see awareness of Parkinson's being raised in the national press, especially if it's with a positive point of view.
You may also enjoy Paul's interview on the parkinsonslife.eu website. That site is a great source of interesting stories and optimistic takes on Parkinson's.
Don't forget that the half-hour documentary Parkinson's: The Funny Side is permanently available on BBC iPlayer at this link.
Parkinson's UK delegation to 10 Downing Street
Images © Parkinson's UK, available at their Flickr site
Parkinson's UK recently arranged a meeting with the Prime Minister, Theresa May, at 10 Downing Street. As well as senior members of the charity, many well-known figures connected with Parkinson's were there. No fewer than four of them had been speakers at our September 2017 conference! Among them was Paul Mayhew-Archer, who writes:
Not only am I lucky enough to have Dr Who as my neurologist but I have now had the thrill of going inside a Tardis.
OK. To be accurate, my neurologist is Dr Hu. And I haven't been in an actual Tardis, but 10 Downing St feels pretty similar. You go through a front door and suddenly you're in a building that stretches back down Whitehall. You can't help feeling if you found a wardrobe in one of the rooms Mr Tumnus would pop out and usher you into Narnia.
The reason I was visiting Downing St was because the Prime Minister was hosting a reception for Parkinson's UK to commemorate the 200 years since James Parkinson wrote his essay.
It was - like every day living with Parkinson's - a day when I felt both 'off' and 'on', down and up.
I was very "up" as I waited to go in. Then I got talking to some leading Parkinson's researchers and I felt "down" when one of them revealed he was contemplating leaving the country if Brexit turned out badly or if his European wife continued to feel unwelcome. We are lucky that we have some of the greatest minds in the world working on Parkinson's, but of course great minds are offered jobs everywhere. Will we continue to attract and keep the best?
Incidentally, there are occasions when the word "Brexit" seems like the word "Voldemort" - that which must not be spoken. But I spoke it in No 10 and from what I can gather - and I am sure someone will correct me if I have gathered it wrongly - the thinking, the hope, seems to be that in ten years time we'll be able to look back on Brexit and feel we did the right thing. My own concern of course is the ten years in between. Speaking as someone who is 64 and from Oxford, a world-renowned centre for Parkinson's research, the next ten years are pretty important. I would simply urge Parkinson's UK to pressurise all those in power to ensure that scientific collaboration and endeavour continues as smoothly as possible.
For me, this was a day of exciting brief encounters. Not only did I get to meet the Prime Minister - I was moved to discover that her mother had MS - but I also got to meet Billy Connolly, probably the greatest standup comedian the UK has ever produced and one of my comedy heroes. He is still very funny.
It was also a thrill to meet Pamela Stephenson, Billy's wife, Jane Asher, the President of PUK, the splendidly enthusiastic staff at PUK and Adil Ray (Citizen Khan) whose mother has Parkinson's.
Two moments, however, stand out for me and they both involve people with early onset Parkinson's.
One was the presentation of an award to James Morgan and Juliette Pochin, the amazing organisers of the Symfunny Concerts. James was diagnosed with Parkinson's in 2012 at the age of 42.
The other was the speech by Emma Lawton.
Emma was diagnosed 4 years ago when she was 29. Not only does she have Parkinson's but her neck muscles have collapsed on one side because of a problem that she told me is not due to the Parkinson's. "Of all the luck," she said brightly.
Before Steve Ford and Theresa May spoke, expressing their determination to fight yet harder for a cure and better treatment, we heard from Emma. My Goodness. What an astonishing person she is. She meets everything she faces with such spirit and such humour. She's going to have a go at stand up comedy and I think she'll be terrific.
She was the reason I ended the day on a wonderful 'up'. Parkinson's is horrible and ruthless, but the people it attacks seem to be extraordinary, inspirational people: People like Emma and James and Billy, and also people in my local group like Sally and Jem and many others. The Parkinson's community is full of people who inspire researchers to dig deeper into their brilliant brains and inspire politicians and the public to dig deeper into their pockets. While they do so there is hope for us all.
PROCEEDINGS NOW ONLINE! Parkinson's 200 Plus
On 18th September 2017 our Branch proudly presented a conference marking the bicentenary of publication of An Essay on the Shaking Palsy by James Parkinson.
Presentation screencasts
Most of the presentations are now available online as videos of the presentation slides along with the presenter's voice. Follow this link to see the full collection on our Vimeo channel, or browse the conference timetable with links to each individual video.
Panel sessions online
Panel 1: The promise of future therapies
Research leaders Richard Wade-Martins, Richard Wyse and Arthur Roach discuss what we can expect to see in the near future, in a session chaired by Kevin McFarthing. Available as an MP3 audio podcast at this link.
Panel 2: Living better with Parkinson's
Parkinson's nurse Jo Bromley chairs a panel with inspirational PwPs John Foster, Emma Lawton and Alex Reed. Transcript document (PDF) available at this link.