London to Monaco, by bicycle!

Richard Taylor, the son of Edinburgh Branch members David and Fiona Taylor, is cycling 850 miles to Monaco with friends Mike and Si for Parkinson’s UK because they fund leading research to find a cure.

Follow this link for further details on how to sponsor them

Art in Healthcare

Dr Conor Maguire, well known to Branch members, is on the Board of a Charity called 'Art in Healthcare'

The Charity provides high quality Scottish art for healthcare settings
(which the hospital/care area rents at a nominal fee annually to cover
insurance) - and much of the art you see around Lothian hospitals is from
the Charity. Click here to visit the Art in Healthcare website.

The Charity also organises talks and events - and details of  one by Bill
Hare  may be downloaded by clicking here.

 

PD ExpertBriefing: Parkinson’s Medications:

Exactly how many medications are available to treat Parkinson’s? Are there new treatments on the horizon? Find answers by joining PDF and Cynthia L. Comella, M.D., F.A.A.N. – online or by phone – for a one-hour seminar discussing the topic. Follow this link.

 

The Edinburgh Parkinson's Lecture 2012

 The eminent Cambridge neuroscientist, Professor Roger Barker, accepted a joint invitation from the Edinburgh Branch, the Lothian Parkinson's Service Advisory Group and the MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine, and gave an outstanding public lecture on 8th May, 2012, at the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh, entitled

How close are we to solving the problem of what goes wrong in Parkinson's?

For more information go to the Research Interest Group page.

 

Hardest Hit Campaign

 

Three Branch members pictured taking part in the recent campaign. For more details, follow this link.

 

Medication Workshop

A very successful and well-attended medication workshop was held on Wednesday 22 February 2012.

Discussions were led by Alison Stewart, Senior Parkinson’s Nurse at the Royal Victoria Hospital, and Alison Thomson, Senior Clinical Pharmacist in the Department of Neurosciences at the Western General Hospital, Edinburgh.  The flyer for the meeting is here.

 

Sleep Seminars

The Parkinson’s Nurse Service is working in conjunction with the Psychology dept at the Royal Victoria Hospital. We are planning a pilot series of Sleep Education seminars to be run for the benefit of people with Parkinson’s.

The aim of the course is to learn about normal sleep then understand abnormal sleep and approaches for helping you experience improved sleep.

As this is a pilot group, we are only able to offer 20 places for the programme.

We ask that at the time of application you are willing and able to commit to attend all 3 sessions. 

Seminars will be held on a fortnightly basis from 6-7 pm at the Royal Victoria Hospital on:

• Wednesday 7^th March, 2012:   Normal sleep and tools to help with the next session (Sleep Efficiency Score and sleep diaries.)
• Wednesday 24^th March, 2012: Abnormal Sleep, Psychology input
• Wednesday 4^th April, 2012: Focus specifically on feedback from group. Could involve smaller groups and individual attention if necessary.

If this course is of interest to you please complete the application form and return it to the address below.

NB If you secure a place for the seminars and find that you are no longer able to attend, please contact a member of our team on 0131 537 5257 and let us know so that your place can be offered to someone else who may benefit from them

Gavin Hastings climbs Kilimanjaro for PD

Scottish rugby star Gavin Hastings climbed Kilimanjaro on 10 January, 2012, with Miss Scotland and a team of 27 other climber as a celebration of his 50th birthday and to raise money to help find a cure for Parkinson's Disease. Gavin's wife, Diane, was diagnosed with the condition at the age  of 39. For more information or to make a donation go to the JustGiving website.

 

Trichloroethylene implicated in Parkinsons's

BBC News reports that an international study has linked an industrial solvent to Parkinson's disease. Researchers in California found a six-fold increase in the risk of developing Parkinson's in individuals exposed in the workplace to trichloroethylene (TCE).

 

Edinburgh Research Interest Group

The objectives of the Group are:

• To provide opportunities for members with an interest in Parkinson's research to meet, communicate, work together and generally further the cause of research.
• To encourage and develop all members’ interest in research.

The inaugural meeting was held on 2 July 2011. Thanks to Dr Tilo Kunath, the meeting took place in the Roger Land Building at the University of Edinburgh King's Buildings campus. 

The second meeting was held at the same venue on Saturday 17th September 2011, to discuss an action plan.

There was also a short presentation by Professor David Lee, on the theme of Sound and Movement.

The third meeting was held on 10th December, 2011, in the new Scottish Centre for Regenerative Medicine, courtesy of Dr Tilo Kunath, and was a member-led discussion on the topic of Nutrition. For more information, click on the Research Interest Group button in the left-hand menu.

Ken Bowler.

 

What we learned
at the Glasgow World Parkinson's  Congress

We held a Branch Symposium on 27th November 2010 to discuss the lessons of the WPC.

Members who attended the Congress talked about what they found interesting  and important at it.

The speakers shown above (L to R) are Tilo Kunath, Jamie Love, Mo Morgan, Ken Bowler, Liz Mcbain, Annet Mackay, Christine Love, Patrick Mark.

Topics presented included
Alpha-Synuclein & the Immune System
Gene and Cell-based therapies
Genetics and beyond
The impact of Tom Isaacs and other PwP speakers
Neuroprotection & Biomarkers
Nutrition Issues for Parkinson's
Multidisciplinary teams for Parkinson's
ParkinsonsNet and Physiotherapy standards

Also a musical feature. The Parkinson's song by Liz and the Rap group!
Watch the video!
Download the  words!

The event was hosted by Parkinson's UK Research Fellow Dr Tilo Kunath and the Institute of Stem Cell Research, University of Edinburgh. The Branch is extremely grateful to Dr Kunath for enabling it to use the excellent facilities at Kings Buildings.

 

MEETING CHANGES FROM 2010

Our monthly meetings (previously held in St Cuthbert's church hall) are now to he held in the Trinity Suite of   the St James Thistle Hotel, part of the St James’ centre in Edinburgh. We hope that this will be a more convenient venue for members .

NEW VENUE FOR RV DROP IN

The Drop in previously held at the Royal Victoria Hospital  has moved..

It is now the North Edinburgh Drop in and is held at the  Pollock Pavilion, 227 Ferry Road, EH6 4SP.

Sessions are held on the first  Friday of the month from 2.00 to 4.00pm.

LOTHIAN PARKINSON'S FORUM  (LPF)

The Forum was founded by the main specialists in the care of people with Parkinson’s Disease in Lothian in 2007 in order to co-ordinate and develop services for people with Parkinson’s in Lothian.  The membership of the Forum committee has representation from neurology, medicine for the elderly, nursing, allied health professionals, general practice, and  Parkinson’s UK Edinburgh Branch.

The Chair is Dr Conor Maguire Consultant Physician, Medicine for the Elderly at RVH / WGH Edinburgh.

The main initial aims of this Forum are:-

• To develop a co-ordinated service pathway for people with Parkinson’s in Lothian,
• To further develop the service provided within Lothian for People with Parkinson’s (PWP) so every person within the area has equal access to optimal services,
• To disseminate information about Parkinson’s and Parkinson’s Services in Lothian throughout the medical and general community,
• To educate and train health professionals throughout Lothian in the care and management of Parkinson’s Disease.

Following the successful Conference held last year it is planned to hold a second  Lothian Parkinson’s Congress in November. Details will be announced shortly.

 

The new Parkinson’s Nurse Specialist Team

Left to Right; Alison Darbyshire, Alison Stewart, Tina Daniels

Alison Stewart has now been joined by the two additional nurses agreed by NHS Lothian and funded for the first two years by Edinburgh Branch of PDS. This is great news for the Parkinson's community in Edinburgh and Lothian.

They are  based in an excellent room in the Royal Victoria Hospital.

 The Lothian Parkinson’s Nurses are active participants in the Lothian Parkinson’s Forum, working in partnership with Lothian Health, striving to  improve care and access to a specialist Parkinson’s service for all.

Alison Stewart and the team can be contacted at 0131 537 5259

Or Parkinsons.nursespec@luht.scot.nhs.uk