‘Having Jacqui has changed our world’

FIONA RUSSELL
November 05 2007

Standing in a queue at the checkout of his local supermarket, Gerry McCann, of Easterhouse, Glasgow, suddenly slumped to the ground, unable to move any part of his body. As a crowd of anxious shoppers gathered around him, the 42-year-old concentrated hard on his speech, managing to convey in a whispery voice, through fixed jaws, his urgent requirement for medication.

Acting on his directions, a shop assistant found McCann a glass of water and helped him ingest a small pill she had retrieved from his pocket. A few minutes later, he was on his feet and moving shakily but freely.

For McCann, this frustrating - and clearly embarrassing - incident had become what he now describes self-effacingly as "one of numerous inconveniences of living with Parkinson's disease". The former charity co-ordinator, who was diagnosed with the progressive neurological condition aged 35, explains: "Going suddenly rigid, as I did in the supermarket, is called switching off', which can be a common occurrence for many people with Parkinson's. I would switch off at least three times a day, without notice, despite being on a programme of drugs.

"This had been going on for many years, and taking the drugs on time and in larger measures would help, but I still found it hard to get the dose right or predict the switching-off episodes.

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