St Neots Table Tennis Club, based in Cambridgeshire, recently held a training day at the club for 15 NHS staff who are living with Parkinsons disease alongside some of their partners.

The day, coached by Mark Mitchell, had a profound effect on the attendees. The thoughts of Ed Kirkham are detailed below:

“We are all part of an online support group for healthcare professionals living and working with Parkinson’s disease but even after many years of being an online community, until this recent event we had never met in person. I’m a huge advocate of table tennis for people with Parkinson’s, it’s an essential part of my disease management. Despite being diagnosed 5 years ago aged 37, it helps to keep me well and working.

Having attended Parkinson’s training days with Mark before, I knew how well he understood is and how brilliantly he tailored his sessions to our needs. Mark handled the day brilliantly along with his assistant Phil. The hall was filled with admirable determination, concentration and of course, laughter. We struggled to get everyone off the tables at the close of play and there is already talk of sending a group to the Parkinson’s table tennis world championships in Helsingborg in November.

We would like to say a massive thank you to Mark, Phil, and St Neots Table Tennis Club for hosting us and helping some NHS staff learn to play and love table tennis”.

Photo Credit: BWsportsphotography