Keith Wilson lives near Darlington, and before he retired, he worked in education. His last job was director of higher education at a local college. Five years ago, he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.
Keith shares that as an active person, he began to notice problems with his movement. Initially he thought it might be a brain tumour or multiple sclerosis, and his diagnosis of Parkinson’s was a slight relief.
His diagnosis was confirmed after doing lots of different tests, one of which was a DaTscan. A DaTscan is a brain scan which helps to diagnose conditions like dementia and Parkinson’s. It works by detecting the loss of nerve cells in the brain. Keith felt he was lucky having that, as it is less common here in the UK than it is in the US.
Because of Keith’s love of running and mountaineering, he wanted to keep active and not become a couch potato. He continued to climb and recognised that the adrenaline he got from climbing actually helped the symptoms of Parkinson’s to go away for a couple of hours. So, he started to explore the idea of creating dopamine or adrenaline hits on a daily basis to help fight his disease. To this end, he bought two VR headsets and he and his wife download activities and have found that these help.
Keith then bought 10 other VR headsets via crowdfunding and started to give talks around the region, showing what he was doing to help himself. He now runs regular events to help other people with both neurological conditions, and Parkinson’s to enjoy a huge range of different virtual activities. He shares some of the examples of how it has helped people. The program that Keith uses is accessible to everyone, and not an expensive solution.
He also talks about how, when he started this venture of using VR headsets, there was no research at all about VR and Parkinson’s. There were others for Alzheimer’s, dementia and strokes, but now there are many different research articles appearing.
You can find Keith on:
Facebook; the Darlington Parkinson’s support group page. https://www.facebook.com/groups/719576183066014
Email: [email protected]
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