Young ambassador for Parkinson's

1:46p.m. 9 October 2007

| By Toby Walker

When Nerissa Mapes introduced herself in federal parliament recently, she got straight to the point.

“If you met me at work, on the netball court or out socially, you would think I am pretty normal,” she told the assembled politicians.

“But my neurologist tells me I will never be normal. That’s because I have Parkinson’s disease.

“I was diagnosed a year-and-a-half ago at the age of 28.”

It was quite an introduction and one Nerissa, 30, has become familiar with as an uncommonly young sufferer of a condition most of us associate with frailty and old age.

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