Parkinson’s Disease is a progressive neurological condition. There are more than 10,000 people affected in Yorkshire and Humberside. That means about 127,000 in the UK (28 people with Parkinson’s Disease in every 10,000 of the population). This figure will rise to 162,000 in 2019 based on present population trend figures.

Most people who get Parkinson’s are aged 50 or over but younger people can get it too. One in 20 people diagnosed with Parkinson’s is under the age of 40.

People with Parkinson’s don’t have enough of a chemical called dopamine because some nerve cells in their brain have died. Without dopamine people can find that their movements become slower so it takes longer to do things. The loss of nerve cells in the brain causes the symptoms of Parkinson’s to appear.

There is currently no cure for Parkinson’s and we don’t yet know why people get the condition. Parkinson’s doesn’t directly cause people to die, but symptoms do get worse over time.