Living with Parkinson's Disease

Alastair Beach talks to Peter James about life with a condition that affects one in 500 people in the UK

Cricket used to be a major part of Peter James’s life.

The grandfather-of-two joined his local club in Marlow back in 1971 and later became captain of the third team.

As a medium bowler he was quite handy – he still recalls his best figures of five wickets for 30 runs – and he soon became a mainstay of the squad. Then he and his wife Jill moved to Australia in the early 1980s.

Peter, 72, recalled a time they returned to England for a brief visit. “I came back to Marlow Cricket Club and went to play some nets. I was shocked. I picked up a cricket ball and I couldn’t bowl it. I couldn’t co-ordinate the ball, it was going all over the place. It really shook me that did.”

Peter did not give it a second thought then, but he now thinks these were the early symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.

A few years later, in 1993, his Australian doctor confirmed he had the condition. Peter, a former managing director for pharmaceutical firm Fisons, still remembers the exact time he was told. “It was November 23 at 11am,” he said. “I had seen my GP a few days before and reported strange sensations in my left hand. I kept wanting to bend it back all the time.

“My first reaction when he later said it was Parkinson’s was one of relief. I didn’t have a brain tumour and I wasn’t going to die in the next two weeks. It was obviously a bit of a shock, but at the time I wasn’t really aware of the inevitable deterioration that would occur.”

Across the UK about one in 500 people suffer from Parkinson’s – around 120,000 in total. It is caused by a loss of nerve cells which produce dopamine, a chemical which allows messages to be sent to the parts of the brain coordinating movement.

Symptoms usually appear after the age of 50 – although one in 20 sufferers are diagnosed with ‘young-onset Parkinson’s disease’ before they are 40 years old – and the progression of the disease can vary greatly according to the individual.

As Peter himself acknowledges, he has been one of the ‘lucky ones’. For the first year after being diagnosed he did not show any further symptoms and the disease seemed to be progressing slowly. But later he started suffering from fatigue, slurred speech and what he calls the ‘shuffling gait’ walk.

About 70 per cent of people with Parkinson’s also develop a tremor in one hand, the symptom most often associated with the disease. But this did not happen to Peter, who now lives in Davis Close, Marlow.

Perched on the edge of a sofa chair wearing brown leather shoes and with a pair glasses hanging around his neck, it might not be immediately obvious he even has the disease. Yet the daily routine tells a different story.

One 125mg L-Dopa pill every two hours during the day to boost the body’s dopamine levels. One Mirapexin tablet with every other L-Dopa, again to stimulate dopamine to the brain. Three Tasmar tablets to complement the other medicines.

And all this just so he can get out of his own chair. “It’s like you’ve almost stepped over the invalid world which you haven’t been part of before,” he said. “It’s quite a major thing. Our friends have been brilliant. They’ve really included us in just about everything. But there starts to become a time when it’s not practical to be included.

“Some of them are going on a sailing holiday to the Isle of Wight. If we go along then they start having to think ‘how are we going to get them in, how are we going to get them out’.”

Not everyone feels so burdened by the disease - Peter’s young grandson has started mimicking the Parkinson’s ‘shuffle’, much to his grandfather’s amusement. But he does worry about becoming more dependent on his wife Jill, and the future is far from clear.

“I have concerns as to how I will personally handle the condition as I get older I suppose,” he said. “We will see.”

• Peter is a member of the Slough, Windsor and Maidenhead Parkinson’s Disease Society (PDS). The group meets every second Monday of the month at Wamdsad, Braywick sports ground, at 2pm. 
For more details about the group contact Peter James on 01628 487741, Joan Somerville on 01628 850694 or Kay Andrews on 01189 792909.