Well, I had a grand day out on the 16th July. Parkinson’s UK had invited me down to a Parliamentary reception to celebrate and bring attention to the Excellence Network, funding the Parkinson’s nurses and the very fluid and topical welfare bill and benefits attached to it... this could affect currently claiming PwPs and future diagnosed people very differently.
The meeting was held at the Terrace dining room A in the House of Commons and hosted by the new Chair of the All party Parliamentary group on Parkinson’s in Westminster, Graeme Downie MP, Who also happens to be the MP for Dunfermline and Dollar.
We met or heard from a number of Scottish MPs:
Graham Downie, Dunfermline and Dollar, Scott Arthur, Edinburgh South West, Kirsteen Sullivan, Bathgate and Linlithgow, Zubir Ahmed, Glasgow South West and Wendy Chamberlain, North East Fife
...different parties coming together for the common (Parkinson's) good is a wonderful thing.
Hard to know what they will do next, but we felt very supported by them all.
Hopefully we can get some involved with what's happening on their doorsteps, Graeme has already agreed to visit the MRC PPU Lab, which is great news and we hope to make it a cross-party tour, once we have a date.
What was special, was a tour through the reporter's interview and lobbying area, the restaurant and getting to go through the secret underground tunnel between buildings with two police with machine guns in the middle ☺️, but maybe that's a boy thing .
No branch funds were used for this trip😎