Success for Bristol Essential Tremor Awareness Day
On Friday 23rd February the famous “Carousel of Chat” arrived in Bristol, as the South-West hosted its first Essential Tremor Awareness Day. Kindly sponsored by Insightec and Abbott the day drew nearly 60 people to our wonderful host venue, Engineers House, on the edge of the Clifton Downs.
On Friday 23rd February the famous “Carousel of Chat” arrived in Bristol, as the South-West hosted its first Essential Tremor Awareness Day. Kindly sponsored by Insightec and Abbott the day drew nearly 60 people to our wonderful host venue, Engineers House, on the edge of the Clifton Downs.
(L–R) Claire Viner (Abbott), Matt Cox (Abbott), James Blann (Insightec), Anna Viggers (Insightec), Jackie Farrell (NTF).
Dr Mihaela Boca (Consultant Neurologist) and Miss Reiko Ashida (Consultant Neurosurgeon), Bristol-based experts in the field of Essential Tremor, gave inspirational talks on what Essential Tremor is and what treatments can be offered to provide tremor control. Dr Boca focused on the condition and pharmacology, and Miss Ashida focused on two surgical therapies: Deep Brain Stimulation and MR Guided Focused Ultrasound.
Lauren and JackieAfter a short break, Karen Hull delivered yet another fantastic session on balance, using James as her rather wobbly assistant to demonstrate that multi-tasking really does take its toll on how we balance!
Karen was followed by a fantastic lunch which set us up nicely for the Carousel of Chat. This time the carousel featured two people with ET who had been treated with the surgical therapies that Miss Ashida had described in her talk earlier.
Dennis had been treated with the Abbott Deep Brain Stimulation device, and Chris had been treated with Insightec’s MR Guided Focused Ultrasound. Each led a “Carousel of Chat” table, and were able to provide first-hand accounts of exactly what it was like to be treated with these two modalities, and this was really well received by everyone who was there.
The other “Carousel of Chat” tables were hosted by Karen with a balance workshop, Dr Boca and Miss Ashida with a clinical table, and our very own Jackie and Pheobe from the NTF (with help from Lauren pictured here with Jackie). They were able to let people know about the work of the NTF to raise awareness of ET and the support that it provides for people, especially through the tireless work of the support groups that are co-ordinated by Jackie.
James Blann of Insightec provided the MC duties during the day and our enormous thanks are due to both Insightec and the folks at Abbott for supporting this fantastic event, and we look forward to working with them again for future awareness days.
