EAST Renfrewshire’s MP has thrown his weight behind a campaign aiming to increase awareness of Parkinson’s disease.

Paul Masterson is backing ‘Parkinson’s Is’, which was launched on World Parkinson’s Day last week to highlight the reality of living with the neurological condition.

The campaign is determined to shatter any misconceptions people might have of the disease, and highlight what life is really like for people with it and their families.

There are currently 12,400 people in Scotland battling Parkinson’s and a further 30 people are diagnosed on a weekly basis.

According to recent research from Parkinson’s UK, eight in 10 people with Parkinson’s believe that awareness and understanding is low because people don’t consider it to be a serious condition.

People often associate it with a solitary symptom, know as ‘the tremor’, but it actually has more than 40 symptoms, gets progressively worse over time and there is no cure.

It affects people of all ages, and celebrities who have it, such as Billy Connolly and Michael J. Fox, have proven it can get people in any walk of life.

Mr Masterson said: “One in 37 will be diagnosed with Parkinson’s in our lifetime, and I’m proud to support Parkinson’s UK’s new campaign to challenge widely held misconceptions about the condition.”

Annie Macleod, Scotland director or Parkinson’s UK, said: “Despite the fact that Parkinson’s is the second most common neurodegenerative condition after Alzheimer’s, many people still don’t understand what Parkinson’s is or how it affects people.”

Visit www.parkinson’s.org/parkinsons-is to find out more about the condition and how you can get behind the campaign.

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