Magdalene Rogers

Hello, Brenda.

Hi, Clare.

Thanks for having me on.

Lovely to have you with us.

And I mentioned at the start that you were diagnosed with Parkinson's three years ago.

How are you doing, first of all?

And in terms of getting your diagnosis when you started to realise something was wrong, how was that experience for you?

And now when it comes to accessing services, because you are in the Dublin area, so what we're hearing is that once you're on the East Coast, it's not too bad.

But how do you find it now?

So just again, it depends on where you are, Magdalene, listening to that.

It depends on where you live, yeah.

And just, Magdalene, if I can come back to you, I mean, what needs to happen here?

Because when you say there's 24,000 people on a waiting list, it almost seems intractable.

Like, where do you start with solving that?

It makes no sense because if you don't have the neurology services, every other service gets put under pressure then, doesn't it?

Because where do people go?

So that investment is needed.

Is there any indication that it's coming?

And it's a lot, Brenda, for you to take on for somebody who's dealing with your diagnosis, working, trying to get on with your life as best you can to advocate for services, too.

Why is it so important for you to do that?