Billy Connolly

About Parkinson's and health Symptoms
1

I’ve been feeling quite positive the last week or so as I have been feeling good, with hardly any symptoms except for sluggish arms and legs in the morning.

I seem to have improved greatly since the weather has cooled down.

But I have just been reading about Billy Connolly and how he doesn’t recognise anyone and his mind had “dulled”, does anyone know the percentage of people this happens to with Parkinson’s.

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Hello Margs,

I’ll pass your question about percentages along to the team to take a look at tomorrow, but we do also have some information on mild memory and thinking problems, which you can find here: Thinking and memory changes | Parkinson's UK.

I hope this is helpful to you, and best wishes,
Min
Moderation Team.

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Thank you Min.

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Hi @Margs,

I see one of our moderators has already got in touch with you which is great, but I thought I’d quickly chime in here as well. It’s really sad to hear about Billy Connolly’s rapid health decline and our thoughts go out to him and his family.

To answer your question, as you can imagine there isn’t a straight forward answer because Parkinson’s affects everyone differently, however, a recent paper from the Oxford and Tracking Parkinson’s teams looks at understanding the different types of Parkinson’s. In their study groups, they identified a faster progressing type in around 31% of people, where as 20% had the slowest progressing type.

While there will still be much variability in the rate of progression of symptoms in this group (from slightly faster than average too much faster) this is probably the best answer we can give you at the moment. But it is important to note that this does not mean 31% of people with Parkinson’s will have symptoms like Billy Connolly.

I hope you find this information useful - we are currently working on a blog post about this research and I’ll share it with the forum once it has been published.

Best wishes,
Reah

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Thank you Reah.

1 Like
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According to Pamela Stephenson, Billy Connolly is not as reported! https://m.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/billy-connollys-wife-pamela-stephenson-labels-michael-parkinson-a-daft-old-fart-for-suggesting-comedians-brain-has-dulled-due-to-parkinsons_uk_5b7be328e4b0a5b1febec1f6

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I just read that too! Suspect the truth is somewhere inbetween & Billy varies according to the day.

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As we all do Mountainair, we all differ in moods, strength, alertness, pain, etc we all feel it at some time or other be it hourly, daily, weekly, monthly. Whoever you are it comes to us all!

sheffy

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Hi Margs

Since reading nthe original item I have read a piece by his wife saying that it is not true, and that he is still quite sharp and funny.

I think that, for most of us, it is a question of wait and see

Let’s think positivelyand hope that it doesn’t happen to us.

Yours

Audrey

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Yes Audrey, that is definately the right attitude. Not always easy though.

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Well said Margs, Avoid the statistics, you are an individual and I’m sure a wonderful one who doing her best x