Refer
DonateDanny's Story
Danny, 75, is a patient of Compton and attends our Living Well Service together with Colette, his partner and carer.
In August 2022 Danny was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. He said “It took me a while to come to terms with the diagnosis because you think of people shaking and the deterioration. I knew very little about Parkinson’s, my partner Colette was keen to find out more, but I was just coming to terms with it”.
Danny is an artist and musician and used art as a way of exploring his thoughts and feelings around his diagnosis, he said “I sat down and decided to draw a picture to try and describe what the diagnosis means to me. I started to think: Who am I? What’s being destroyed? What are the things that I could do before that I can’t do now? I began to understand that what I was going through was a grievance. I was grieving for my old self.”
Danny and Colette started going to a local Parkinson’s support group and one day a member of staff from Compton came along to talk about the Living Well Service at Compton and the services and activities available.
Compton’s Living Well Service aims to give patients the practical and emotional tools that they need to continue to live actively and independently with their condition. The therapy led service works together with patients to agree a programme of activities to meet their individual goals and needs and this is carried out in whichever way is most accessible. Activities include social groups, relaxation, craft and create or seated exercise therapy.
Danny and Colette started to attend Living Well and the groups provided by the service. He said “What I found at Compton was that the culture was very caring, very supportive and very understanding. Everyone was willing to go that extra little mile to help, and everyone had got a smile, and that made me feel better. Compton understand what people need, and what we needed was an opportunity for social intercourse”.
Danny continued “I began to realise that there were fellow travellers in that group, not all with Parkinsons, but we were all on the same journey, with different aspects and symptoms and attitudes towards it. We all shared that one of the worse things you can do is isolate yourself, so I was looking for knowledge, I was looking for friends, and I was looking for people to support me. I found that at Compton”.
Since joining the Living Well Service, both Danny and Colette have become regular attendees of the groups. He said “I can’t speak more highly of the colleagues here at Compton. You can’t train what the colleagues here have got. The people here are caring people, they’re loving people and they put themselves behind other people, they don’t put themselves in front of other people.”
“I get the feeling of being wanted, being cared for, being loved and I get the opportunity to discuss with others and find connections and talk about them. It’s the camaraderie, it’s the coming together, it’s the having a bit of a joke, it’s like a youth club!”
He continued “It’s a space where we can be free to talk, nobody’s going to criticise you. It’s a place where you can come and be yourself, learn about yourself, allow yourself to be exposed emotionally, and learn about yourself
“Living Well provides a resource that I could not have got anywhere else, and that resource allowed me to be in a free space, and to get support and help. Not only help, but help for me to help myself and that’s how it’s supported me.”