Parkinson’s group to meet

Helping to make new contacts

Parkinson’s UK’s West Lothian Support Group will hold their next meeting next week.

The event will be at 1pm on Wednesday ( May 31) at the Community Education Centre, Strathbrock Place, Uphall.

Everyone concerned with Parkinson’s will be very welcome.

This includes patients, carers, family and friends.

All meetings are opportunities to benefit from making contact with others who in one way another live with the condition. Understanding how patients and their carers cope is especially encouraging to many people in the days immediately following diagnosis.

Written information and advice is freely available to take away, as well as contact details for specialist nurses and advisers employed by Parkinson’s UK.

Wendy Carle Taylor, special guest at the meeting, is a voice coach and musician who has a decade’s experience working with singing groups for people with Parkinson’s. She will demonstrate gentle warm-up exercises, and then lead everyone in a simple song.

Singing in a group is generally accepted as helpful and healthgiving, and can be effectively therapeutic for people with Parkinson’s. Joining a group can be a bit daunting, as many of us have an overly pessimistic opinion of our singing voice.

In fact very few are truly tone deaf, and in a group individual voices are hard to pick out. Wendy’s taster sessions have got many fun singers started, often to their surprise.

For further information, contact John Ormerod at the West Lothian Support Group, c/ o Stoneyburn House, 49B Main Street, Stoneyburn, on 01501 762 510 or by email at wlsupportgroup@aol.com.