Breakthrough for Parkinson’s victim

A BRITISH woman stricken with Parkinson’s disease can write for the first time in 15 years after receiving gene therapy.

Sheila Roy is one of only 15 people worldwide to undergo the radical treatment, which involves inserting corrective genes into the brain.

Diagnosed with Parkinson’s in her 40s, she has struggled with the disease for some 17 years.

The symptoms include severe tremors and loss of balance, making simple tasks such as writing impossible.

Doctors at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge injected a modified virus carrying the genes directly into the motor centre of her brain.

The genes provide the coded instructions for proteins needed to make dopamine, a brain chemical essential for proper control of movement.