John Todd

I believed it.

I wanted to believe it.

That maybe, just maybe, I need to sort out my game and fight it.

I've always loved walking.

I don't drive, never have done.

And so walking was my sort of mode of getting anywhere and I found that I was having pains in my legs.

I started to have balance problems and I don't mean just when I came home from the pub, I mean sort of there were times where I would just feel unsteady on my feet.

I had a lot of problems in my left hand which I didn't really understand why I hadn't injured it I was struggling to make a fist or just inflexible The doctor guessed he must have hurt it somehow

They thought it would be a physical type problem.

So physiotherapy on the hand was there.

They arranged for me.

They had another look at it.

I had a scan.

I was told eventually that it was Parkinson's.

As I've always struggled with living, dying held no fears for me.

It just didn't, and it still doesn't.

I sort of lived with the fact that I had Parkinson's for about a year or so.

at which point I thought I'll go back to the specialist.

Eventually I was sort of referred to a neurological specialist, Dr James Gratwick.

So he said to us that, I've got to tell you that you haven't got Parkinson's.