10 October 2006
I WON'T BE BEATEN BY PARKINSON'S
EX-CHAMPION BODYBUILDER IS LIFTING WEIGHTS AGAIN AFTER 15 YEARS THANKS TO REVOLUTIONARY COMPUTERISED DRUG BELT
By Samantha Booth

A FORMER champion body builder, who was crippled by Parkinson's disease for 15 years, has had his life transformed by pioneering treatment.

Fitness fanatic Michael Thompson, 59, won Mr Inverclyde and Mr East of Scotland titles until he was struck down by Parkinson's at the age of 44.

Crippled and confined to a wheelchair by the age of 57, Michael's once active life was destroyed by the disease.

But now, after receiving the groundbreaking drug Apomorphine, Michael is back lifting weights again.

He hopes his experience can help lead to a major breakthrough for thousands of other sufferers.

Parkinson's disease, which affects one in 500 people across Britain, had left the former champion bodybuilder suffering from uncontrollable tremors.

Advertisement
Falk AdSolution

But after becoming only one of a handful of people across the UK to try a pioneering treatment, Michael is walking - and even lifting weights.

Michael, of Greenock, has a special pump on a belt around his waist which gradually releases a drug into his stomach to control his tremors.

Parkinson's has been had a high profile in recent years with celebrities such as Muhammad Ali and Michael J. Fox among the four million sufferers.

After an agonising 13 years of suffering, Michael's doctor recommended Apomorphine two years ago.

Parkinson's is a progressive neurological condition caused by the death of nerve cells in the base of the brain, called neurons.

These nerves usually produce a chemical called dopamine that is used by the movement centres of the brain to maintain smooth and fluid movement, and as Parkinson's disease progresses, they slowly degenerate or die off.

The brain loses its ability to produce dopamine, causing sufferers to lose control of their body and muscle movement.

They experience uncontrollable shaking, stiffness in the limbs and slowness of movement.

Apomorphine is often given to sufferers who have had Parkinson's for 10 to 15 years, when tablets no longer work.

The drug does not cure the disease but controls the shaking and stiffness by imitating the action of dopamine and helping the brain transmit signals to control body movements.

It can be used either as an intermittent injection to manage temporary lapses in control of the condition, or, as in Michael's case, by continuous infusion through a computerised pump.

The drug was discovered in the Fifties, but it was not until the Eighties that it was used both in the diagnosis and treatment of Parkinson's. It has only been used for continuous infusion in recent years using the computerised pump.

After initially getting a specialist nurse to fit the pump every morning, Michael's wife Elizabeth, 60, now does it herself.

She gives Michael a four mg dose of the drug every morning through a syringe which is fitted to the pump. The pump is connected to a line which is inserted into the skin on his stomach.

The computerised device, tied around Michael's waist, gradually releases the drug into his body over the next 12 hours.

Dr Roger Barker, an expert on Parkinson's disease from Cambridge University, said the drug was only used when other treatments were no longer controlling the condition.

But he stressed Apomorphine was not a cure, simply a way of managing the symptoms. "The disease will carry on progressing, and most people will find several years into the treatment that they will start to break down again," he said.

"They will usually get a few good years and then move on to whatever drug is available next. They will stay on it until the drug is not working any longer, or they start getting side effects."

Potential side effects include confusion, skin irritation or feeling sick or faint.

Elizabeth said: "I don't want people to think Michael has been cured because he hasn't. He still has Parkinson's disease. This is just a way of managing it.

"Every morning, he can hardly move at all until I give him the drug. Once I have put it into the pump, it takes half an hour to an hour for it to kick in, and then he is much better for the rest of the day.

"At night, he can lie in bed hardly able to move at all."

But Michael is delighted at the improvement. Before he received the treatment, people often thought he was drunk when he fell down in the street.

One day, when he was out with his four-year-old granddaughter, Michael was shocked to be accused of being drunk.

He said: "One guy said to me: 'That is ridiculous. You in charge of a little girl when you are drunk'.

"I replied: 'You're wrong. I suffer from Parkinson's'. It is amazing how many people can be cruel and think that you are drunk."

Elizabeth struggled to look after Michael as his symptoms became worse. She said: "Since he started on the pump, I have noticed a great difference in Michael.

"The nurses wish they had taken a video of Michael before he got this pump to compare it to how he is now. I hope other people will get to know about this drug and it can help them too."

Although he will never be cured, the drug has given Michael a new lease of life.

"Now I am able to go back to the gym to train, but I am only allowed to go with a carer," he said. "They won't let me go back in on my own.

"When I get the pump put in each the morning it takes 30 minutes to an hour for it to work. After that, I don't even notice it for the rest of the day. Now I don't fall down in the street anymore."