Mike Tindall, the husband of Zara Tindall, has shared a heartbreaking update on his father Philip's battle with Parkinson's disease. The former rugby star first learned about his dad's condition during the Men's Rugby World Cup in Australia in 2003, when Mike was around 24 years old.
Now 47, Mike has been heavily involved in supporting the Parkinson's community through fundraising, awareness campaigns and his role with Cure Parkinson's. More than two decades after his father's diagnosis, Princess Anne's son-in-law has revealed his dad "is not doing great at the moment."
"Parkinson's is brutal and there is no let up from how it attacks the body and changes people," he told Hello! Magazine at his annual charity tournament, the ISPS Handa Celebrity Golf Classic. "After 23 (plus) years of the disease, it has quite honestly left him a shell of what he once was, which is why I don't want anyone else to see a parent or loved one suffer and have their quality of life decline so massively."
According to the NHS, there is currently no cure for Parkinson's disease, although treatments are available to help manage the main symptoms and maintain quality of life for as long as possible. These include supportive therapies such as physiotherapy and occupational therapy, medication and, in some cases, brain surgery.
Mike has previously revealed that his dad had been experiencing problems with small, cramped handwriting – called micrographia – which can be one of the early symptoms of Parkinson's. He said that, being "a typical northern bloke," it took Philip some time to see a specialist, which ultimately led to his Parkinson's diagnosis.
The main symptoms of Parkinson's disease include involuntary shaking of parts of the body (tremors), slow movement, and stiff or inflexible muscles. The NHS also states that people living with Parkinson's can experience a wide range of additional physical and psychological symptoms.
Speaking to experts from Charco Neurotech for The Charco Blog, the former rugby star explained that his father initially showed very few obvious symptoms in the early stages of the condition, although has since faced increasing challenges. One example was that he was "in and out of a wheelchair" at Mike and Zara's wedding in 2011, following an operation on his back to address another complication of his Parkinson's – curvature of the spine, sometimes referred to as camptocormia (forward bending of the spine) and can involve other posture-related spinal changes.
In hindsight, Mike said he wished he knew more about Parkinson's back then so he could have potentially helped his father more. "I feel that if I'd have taken more notice then, I could have made him get on top of staying physically fit and in shape – but that's all hindsight because it's the knowledge that I have now that might not have been there in 2003," he added.
