My friend Rosemary Maguire, who has died aged 76, was the first specialist Parkinson’s nurse in the UK, and made a huge contribution to the lives of people living with Parkinson’s.
Rosemary was working as a geriatric liaison health visitor in her native Cornwall when in 1987 I asked her to carry out a survey of Parkinson’s patients who were attending my specialist clinic at Barncoose hospital in Redruth (now Camborne Redruth community hospital). She had already demonstrated great knowledge of the health- and social-care arrangements for people with Parkinson’s, and her research showed the enormous gaps in our knowledge – as well as the difficulties faced by people and their carers living with the condition.
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