Members were able to hear a highly informative talk from Sandra McDonough at their monthly meeting in May.  Sandra has suffered from Parkinson’s Disease for more than 20 years and members heard about her journey to finding and developing an aid to help sufferers.  Those with Parkinson’s have a variety of symptoms and as Sandra was keen to emphasise, her neurological aid may not help every sufferer or indeed every symptom.

The device is an ‘eye guide’ which fits over one ear of the wearer lining up to their visual field.  It provides a visual sensory stimulus which can improve balance, walking and tremor. The eye guide helps the eye to work with the wearer’s brain to give new signals to the Basal Ganglia, the part of the brain which controls movement. Sandra spoke of the various experimental types of headgear she had invented to help her walk straight when it was suggested she try eye patching.

The device is largely unobtrusive, but members were amazed at the difference when, after talking for half an hour,  Sandra allowed a team member to remove the device – the difference the device had made to her speech, tremor, and ability to walk straight became movingly obvious.

The team at this Spalding based business believe that with clinical trials the device may well help with symptoms associated with other chronic conditions. Eye Guide MC are working with Lincoln and Oxford Universities as well as the Parkinson’s Society to move things forward.

Thank you, Sandra for a truly insightful and memorable presentation.