When Julie and I arrived at Heathrow airport I was offered assistance through the check-in and boarding process, and frankly you’d have to be an idiot to refuse such an offer.

Unfortunately I am an idiot so I said I’d be fine.

What followed was a nightmare as we struggled to attach labels to our cases, and then struggled through the security process. It took me five minutes to empty my pockets before going through the screening thing. And when all the alarms went off it took me another five minutes to take my shoes off before going through it again. And when the alarms went off again another five minutes to take my belt off before going through a third time. And once I finally got through, it then took 15 minutes to get my belt and shoes back on again and my pockets full. By which time we were famished - but we’d taken so long we had no time for lunch. 

 So getting onto the plane was ghastly - but it was worth it because the conference was brilliant.

Here’s what I loved about it.

1. It was HUGE and I could not get over the numbers of brilliant researchers and neurologists who had dedicated their lives to help US.
2. We were welcomed by Paul McCartney. He wasn’t holding the  door open for  us but he’d filmed a welcome message about his oldest friend from junior school who had Parkinson’s.  
3. I met amazing people with Parkinson’s - Gary Shaughnessy may have cycled to Barcelona but Neil Russell RAN to Barcelona.
4. I learnt things. Terrible things such as people with Parkinson’s in parts of Africa are locked away because they're thought to be possessed. Important things such as diet. the need to avoid dairy,  especially cow’s milk and cheese.
5. I attended fascinating sessions - like a roundtable discussion where there were 12 chairs around a large table but only 3 PwPs turned up for the discussion on apathy. And a session on tiredness where a woman asked if she could record the discussion and then fell fast asleep. 
6. I was thrilled to discover that the podcast Movers and Shakers is listened to and enjoyed everywhere, not just in the uk. I was even more delighted to discover that so many people wanted to laugh at Parkinson’s that my own session had to be moved into a bigger room seating over 500.
7. Above all what I loved was that it was a celebration of people with Parkinson’s. Celebrating what we could still do and still contribute rather than focus on what we had lost.

After the conference ended Julie and I went to Barcelona airport where again I was offered assistance through the check in and boarding process.

Hands up if you think I said “Yes, I’d love assistance.”

Hands up if you think I said “No thanks. I’ll be fine.”

Quick contents

• Full table of contents
• We’re back from Barcelona
• Photo gallery
• A view from the inside
• Martin’s report
• My First World Parkinson’s Congress
• Richelle Flanagan: thoughts on diet
• A gallop around the posters
• Our poster paper
• Monitoring tech - ready or not?
• Being an advocate: what next?