Dundee Research Interest Group

It is with great sadness that we learned of the recent passing of Ron Page, a dedicated and much-respected member of the Fife Parkinson’s community for many years. Ron devoted himself to improving the lives of people living with Parkinson’s and their families.

Claire Bale, Associate Director of Research at Parkinson's UK attended this year's World Parkinson's Convention and has reported on some of the key information she collected during her visit to the WPC.  She has written that up for the benefit of all of us who were not able to attend.

You can access her report here: https://www.parkinsons.org.uk/news/2026/reflections-world-parkinson-congress-2026

Happy reading!

The Dundee Research Interest Group has now run three Open Doors Day events at the laboratories of the Dundee University School of Life Sciences where ground breaking research is being done in the urgent search for a cure for Parkinson's disease (PD) as well as methods to relieve the symptoms of PD.

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.

This week our friends at the Dundee University Life Sciences Lab, and in particular the MRC-PPU Lab team, have posted a wonderful message of thanks to all the DRIG members on their internal News Website.

Please take a look here and remember how much they value what we are doing and that by working with them we are helping to move research progress forward for the whole Parkinson's community!  Well done everyone.

On the 11th of April three of our members, Mark Coxe and David and Aileen Rigg, headed south to Westminster to join hundreds of other Parky People and their families responding to the Movers and Shakers Podcast 'Call to Action'! At their BIG SING!

We will be posting links to the regular Newsletters from our three local Parkinson's UK groups - Dundee and Angus, Fife and Perth.  Here is this month's link for Dundee and Angus:

Dundee & Angus March25 newsletter.pdf

Please sign the petition here https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/713714 and encourage all your friends and family to do the same, Rory Cellan-Jones' article on Substack here is helpful to explain the background to others:

tps://open.substack.com/pub/rorycellanjones/p/at-last-the-parky-charter-parliamentary?r=2cgd1e&utm_medium=ios

Some People with Parkinson's (PwP) discover new talents following their diagnosis - for some this may inolve new sporting prowess and for others something artistic, eg poetry.  In this news article we feature some recent poetry from our Dundee University and DRIG Open Doors Day at the School of Life Sciences Lab on the 28th of Feb 2025.