Rhona Emmot first noticed that something was wrong when her handwriting changed.

“I used to have very big, bold handwriting, but over a few months it became really small,” she says. “At first I thought it was lack of practice but the whole way my hands worked changed – peeling things, even holding things became quite difficult.”

Then she felt a twisting, cramping sensation in her foot. “It happened if I walked any distance, such as when I walked the dog.”

Rhona, of East Morton, who was 38 at the time, was referred to a neurologist and diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease.

“I wanted someone to tell me how it was going to progress – how it would be in five or ten years – but nobody could,” she says.

As mother to a nine-year-old son John, Rhona does what she can, realising her limitations. “I don’t have much of a tremor – my hands are quite steady. I suffer more from general slowness. I become very stiff quickly and as I walk my limbs seize up – a bit like the tin man from The Wizard Of Oz.”

Now 43, she is now unable to walk to the end of the street.

“One of the most annoying things is the way it affects your emotions. I used to be a very steady, calm person and now I am quite emotional. I also laugh hysterically and if I get the giggles, I cannot stop laughing. I become agitated and easily upset, it’s strange.”

She talks of the time she was waiting in a supermaket queue and, fed up with waiting, she threw down her goods and stormed out – something she would never have done before. “Strange things happen. It affects your life hugely.”

“It is progressive and incurable – that is something you have to get your head around it and accept,” she says. “When I was younger I rowed at university and I used to take our dog on long walks. I also gardened a lot. Now I find pleasure in other ways, such as painting.

“John has to accept that his mum isn’t quite the same as other mums. When he was learning to ride a bike he wanted me to run alongside but I couldn’t. We joke and make light of things.”

Rhona takes medication to relieve her symptoms. Her husband Sean, a GP, is amazing, she says.

“He has been incredible. He has a stressful job and when he comes home I don’t have the house sorted. My mum and sisters help me when I get behind.”

She enjoys playing a role in village life, helping at tea and coffee afternoons and other community events at East Morton Memorial Institute. “I really enjoy it. I like being busy.”

One person in 500 has Parkinson’s and one in 20 of those diagnosed is aged under 40. It is a progressive neurological condition for which there is currently no cure. People with the disease don’t have enough of a chemical called dopamine because some nerve cells in their brain have died. Without dopamine, their movements become slower. The loss of nerve cells in the brain causes the symptoms to appear.

Early symptoms often include poor hand co-ordination, problems with handwriting and a shaking sensation in the arm. Symptoms vary greatly from person to person and can sometimes take years to progress.

Keith Brooke, 75, didn’t think to see his GP when his hands started to tremble, but when a doctor friend of his spotted it, he said something could be done to help.

“I told him it had been like that for a while and as it didn’t affect me much, I’d brushed it off,” he says. A series of tests followed. “It took about a year to diagnose Parkinson’s and I didn’t know much about it.”

He began to take medication, which led to improvements. “I’ve been pretty good, really. I still play golf and table tennis and I still go dancing with my wife.”

Keith’s wife Kath was relieved to find out what was wrong. “Before then I didn’t know what it was. He got what people call the Parkinson’s mask – his face would go rigid. Friends would ask what was wrong. The consultant said he may have had it for five years or more before diagnosis.”

Initially Keith did not tell anyone but now accepts his condition and is open about it. “It helps to talk about it,” he says.

The grandfather attends a weekly exercise class run by Bradford and Shipley branch of Parkinson’s UK.

“The light exercises help me to feel better,” he says.

Maureen Leverington has worked the local branch for 21 years. “We have about 100 members aged from their 20s to 80s, but altogether we have about 400 contacts,” says the welfare officer, who does not have the condition.

“We have a weekly exercise group, a monthly lunch for sufferers and carers and meetings with speakers. We hope to have a consultant neurologist joining us soon.”

Louise Smith is the information and support worker for Bradford and Airedale Parkinson’s UK, offering information and emotional support to sufferers and their families. She urges people to seek help.

“Being diagnosed can be a very emotional experience but no-one has to face Parkinson’s alone. Knowing where to find answers to questions can make a real difference.”

The group meets at Shipley Library on the third Wednesday of the month (except July and August), from 7.30pm to 9pm. For more information, contact Maureen on (01274) 826176. For information and support, call Louise on 0844 2253764, or visit parkinsons.org.uk/local-support-groups.

The exercise group meets on a Tuesday morning from 10.30am to 11.45am at Bolton Methodist Church Hall, Bolton Road, Bradford. Lunches are held monthly at the Noble Comb in Shipley.

There is also a Parkinson’s UK group in Keighley, contact Pat Phillips on (01535) 214143 or the Parkinson’s UK helpline on 0808 8000303.