Woman releases album to raise awareness of Parkinson's

Rho Dickson started having guitar and singing lessons after she found out she had Parkinson's 11 years ago

A woman with Parkinson's has made an album to help raise awareness of what it is like to live with the disease.

Rho Dickson, from Montacute, Somerset, began having singing lessons to protect her vocal chords from damage and detailed her experience through music.

The 65-year-old said: "I wanted people to know that, just because you get a diagnoses of Parkinson's, it doesn't mean it's the end of the world."

Her album Who Knows is available to stream on Spotify.

Ms Dickson was diagnosed 11 years ago with the age-related degenerative brain condition.

She said she lost an incredible amount of weight when she started taking a "cocktail of drugs" to treat the disease.

She said she also became "very withdrawn" but "gradually, I think through time, you have to accept it, you've got no choice".

"One morning, I woke up and thought 'I've got to control this, this is ridiculous, I can't go on like this'."

She said acceptance of her situation "happened over time" for her

Ms Dickson was diagnosed with Parkinson's after being referred to a neurologist when medics could not understand the cause of a frozen shoulder she had suffered with for more than a year.

Assuming it was a trapped nerve she said: "You always know it's going to be bad news when they sit there and take their glasses off."

She said receiving the diagnosis was an "incredible shock" but the most difficult thing for her was telling her friends and family.

"I spent a lot of time saying 'now don't worry, it'll be fine, I'll be fine...' and it did take my mind off it sort of, trying to placate friends and family."

Ms Dickson said Parkinson's "doesn't just affect your outer limbs and your body, it affects the inside as well.

"It's very important to keep your throat and your voice as strong as you can, so I thought right well I'll go and take up singing lessons".

She said as well as being on her "bucket list", she was inspired to release an album "to say to people, look, life throws some odd balls at you from time to time but this is what you can do if you want to.

"You can change your mindset and look at the positives instead of the negatives".

It is thought about one in 500 people are affected by Parkinson's disease in the UK.

Most people with Parkinson's start to develop symptoms when they are over 50.