Ms Richelle Flanagan:

I live with it myself so I agree with the Deputy. The concept is that it is an older, white man's disease, but actually 40% of people who live with Parkinson's are women and up to 30% who are diagnosed are under the age of 60. That is a large proportion. In fact, it is actually more than the total number of people with MS worldwide, but because it is not known and there is a huge stigma associated with Parkinson's, a lot of young onset people are afraid to talk about it because they might lose their job. We know that people who are diagnosed with young onset - under the age of 40 - tend to lose 20 years of life employment. If you are diagnosed with early onset, which is under the age of 60, you lose ten years of employment. There is a huge impact of informal costs for the person living with the condition. It is the same with other neurological conditions. There is a huge cost in terms of losing your job but also we must not forget the carers. There is a huge impact on carers of people with neurological conditions because, as they progress and get more advanced, the care need is huge. In fact, in the UK recently, research showed that, with advanced Parkinson's disease, carers spend, on average, eight hours a day looking after their loved ones. It is a huge cost to society, the informal as well as the direct costs of healthcare.