The Parky Charter Debate

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

🗓️ 22 November 2025

⏱️ 21 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

So, after two long years of campaigning, this week the Parky Charter – our set of demands for the government – had its moment in Parliament. With the Movers & Shakers and other supporters in attendance, MPs debated the need for improved care for people with Parkinson's across the UK. But what were the important moments from the debate? What wasn't mentioned? And where do we go from here? To celebrate how far we've come and mull over our next steps, the gang gathered back at Gillian HQ (though she was regrettably laid up with a fever) where the Parky Charter was first conceived, back in the winter of 2023.

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.
0:28.2	Hello and welcome to another edition of our award-winning podcast, Movers and Shake is the podcast
0:32.7	about living with Parkinson's. I'm Mark Madel and we're, you can hear, not in the pub,
0:37.1	because there's no clattering of cutlery. We're actually at Gillian's, but Gillian rang me this morning and said, couldn't really hear what she was saying because she had such a bad sore throat and she's now in bed with the temperature of 38.1. Oh my goodness. No, Gillian. In Gillian's house. In Gillian's house. Which has a historic resonance for this episode, but I'll tell you what that is after you've told me who is here.
0:58.9	I'm Paul Mayhew Archer.
1:00.2	Nicholas Mostyn and I'm Rory Ketland Jones.
1:02.8	So why we're here is because two years ago in this very place, we started off a process of the Parkey Charter.
1:09.6	And that culminated in a debate on Monday and House House of Commons. After we got our 100,000 signatures. It's a magnificent affair. But Gillian wanted to say something about her creation of it, and she can't, because she can't speak and she's upstairs in bed. But instead, my husband, Mike, is here. I just happened to be here, yes. So I was there in the debate with her, and to say that it was an emotional moment is the
1:32.1	understatement of the decade.
1:34.0	Both of us were holding back tears.
1:35.8	Gillian has felt so passionately, so personally involved in this right from the start,
1:40.3	that this was just an extraordinary moment for her.
1:43.3	And I'm only very sad she's not here
1:45.1	saying that. It is sad because it was around this very table where we're sitting that the
1:48.4	parkey charter was first discussed and then then hammered out. It was fairly almost
1:52.5	acrimonious, wasn't it? Yes. Not all of this was that keen on it. I was a bit of a doubter.
1:57.5	And I think it's important that we acknowledge that Gillian was the primary
2:02.1	mover and shaker on the creation of this project it was inspired by her and it was carried forward
2:08.9	by her and it's been an extraordinary achievement it's been incredible and then she has done so well
	...

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.