Parkinson's in Africa

Movers and Shakers: a podcast about life with Parkinson's

Podot

Parkinson's, Mental Health, Society & Culture, Pd, Personal Journals, Parkinson's Disease, Health & Fitness, Health, Science, Medicine

4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 6 December 2025

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

From our little corner of the Notting Hill pub, it can be hard to see what life is like for people with Parkinson's across the rest of the UK – let alone around the world! Today, however, we're talking about Parkinson's care in Africa, a continent where levodopa access is limited and where stigmas around the condition still impact countless lives. We're joined by experts – both in the pub and down-the-line from the frontline of treatment – to try and understand the situation and how the global community might collaborate to alleviate some of the suffering of African Parkies.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	You're listening to Movers and Shakers, a podcast about living with Parkinson's.
0:12.4	The show is generously sponsored by Albion Chambers Bristol, a preeminent set of barristers,
0:17.8	specialising in providing the highest quality legal advice and representation
0:22.0	in criminal, family, inquest and regulatory law.
0:28.4	Welcome to another episode of our brilliant award-winning podcast about living with Parkinson's.
0:33.6	This is a bit self-serving, isn't it? Yes. Today we're going to be discussing a serious subject,
0:38.3	the grim outlook for the overwhelming majority of people who live with Parkinson's disease in Africa.
0:45.0	I'm Nicholas Mawston. I'm Rory Catalan Jones. Jillian Nacy Sonoma. Mark Maudill.
0:50.0	And we're missing Paul Mayhew Archer, who is making his film. He's still making his movie,
0:54.0	and it's going to be awesome.
0:55.6	Now, in the developed world, living with Parkinson's has, to put it mildly, its challenges.
1:00.7	However, those of us with the disease are in a very fortunate position in that free or heavily subsidized medication is made available to us, which enables us to live near normal lives
1:12.2	or is highly assistive to that end. In contrast, the position for many sufferers in Africa
1:17.7	could not be more different. There is next to no medication. Sufferers are abused and persecuted.
1:23.7	So we have decided that we should today record an episode which looks at the position of those who are so much less fortunate than ourselves. And we have two very special guests to help us understand the position in Africa. Dr. Natasha Fothergill Mizbar is a research associate at the Population Health Sciences Institute, Newcastle University. Hello, Natasha. Hi, thanks for having me. Now, you've written
1:44.8	extensively about the problem, that I've described, and you've been the moving force, along with
1:50.5	Professor Richard Walker in Trapcath, which is a four-year project to transform Parkinson's Care in Africa.
1:58.0	And that has produced an incredibly moving film about the project called
2:01.3	Uhuru, which means... In Swahili means freedom. Freedom. Yes. And we all have with us as well.
2:06.6	We're very privileged to have the right honourables, Sir Andrew Mitchell, who is Secretary of State for
2:10.5	International Development from May 2010 to September 2012. Hello, Andrew.
2:14.6	Thank you very much, Sir Nicholas. Can I say what an honour it is to be on
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Podot, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Podot and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.