Tackling Parkinson's head on

JEFF TOLLAN jeff.tollan@timaruherald.co.nz - South Canterbury

AGAINST THE ODDS: Peter Dawkins speaking openly about living with Parkinson's Disease at the Timaru District Library yesterday.

IT HAS been a life of ups and downs for Peter Dawkins.

Yesterday he was sharing his experience of battling against Parkinson's Disease.

Now living in Australia, Mr Dawkins spoke frankly to about 50 people at the Timaru District Library about living with the disease and the life-changing surgery he had to combat it.

He was a familiar name in the music scene in the `60s and `70s and produced Shane's St Paul and the Apra Song of the Century, Nature, by the Fourmuyla's.

Mr Dawkins was one of the first in Australia to undergo deep brain stimulation - an operation to essentially bypass or interfere with the impaired brain rhythms associated with the disease, restoring normal movement.

The first attempt at the treatment had limited effect, other than to `keep him going'. But seven years later he underwent the same operation with a different medical team and it was a success.

He spoke of his experience on the operating table when he knew doctors had hit the right spot in his brain.

"It was quite amazing. (I was) shaking like hell ... two doctors were holding my legs down ... (the operating team) came to the right spot and then ... peace.

"The second operation was better than the first. I was free of all symptoms."

Mr Dawkins said while the operation was not a cure for Parkinson's, he would have died without it.

He was 42 when he was first diagnosed with the disease and now turns 62 later this year.

Mr Dawkins said most people only lived for about 11 years with the disease.

"Most people with Parkinson's end up in hospital, which is the wrong place to be I believe," he said.

While he has had to step back from his job in the Australian music industry and takes on about one job every six months, Mr Dawkins still counts himself lucky.

He has written an autobiography, encompassing his love of music and also coping with Parkinson's, with the hope of it helping other people with the disease.

Titled The Icecream Boy, it is named after his days of working at the Regent Theatre in Timaru with the proceeds from sales going to Parkinson's Australia. Copies are not on sale in New Zealand, but can be obtained by e-mailing r.f.skelts@xtra.co.nz