Support Groups Coordinator Jackie Farrell reflects on raising awareness of essential tremor at Brookfield Primary Academy School Fair.

It was definitely worth having a stall on Saturday 19 June at the Brookfield school fair. As well as general enquiries at the table, two separate passers by stopped to share their own tremor stories. Meghan (whose nephew attends the school) has familial ET and works in mental health in Sussex, so took leaflets to help raise awareness in the area. Interestingly, Meghan said when diagnosed she was told she had essential tremor and basically told there is no cure and just sent home without any information or advice about the disorder. A familiar story I hear when raising awareness!

meghan who have ET
Jackie with Meghan who has essential tremor

A serendipitous moment: A grandparent stopped at the table surprised to see it was about Essential Tremor. He has a tremor in his right hand and that very morning had searched the internet for information on tremors. He found the NHS site and discovered that essential tremor (which he had never heard of previously) was a possible cause. Then a few hours later while attending his grandson’s school fair, discovered a stall about Essential Tremor! We both thought it an amazing coincidence that this happened on same day. In fact, he was keen to show me the history of his morning’s search to prove it was genuine.

I’m looking forward to raising ET awareness at two more school fairs in July.

9th July – Manor Park Primary, Cheam
16th July – Cheam Common Infants Academy, Cheam

We thank LEO Academy, Cheam for their support in helping us raise Essential Tremor awareness at their schools’ fairs.

Jackie Farrell

NTF Support Groups Coordinator
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