Making the impossible POSSIBLE

After a shock diagnosis on the eve of her 40th, Sandra McDonough decided to reinvent herself

- KATE CHAPMAN

The thrill of riding pillion on her husband’s motorbike was one Sandra McDonough, 59, thought she’d never experience again after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease on the eve of her 40th birthday. But several years after giving up hope of enjoying their shared passion again, Sandra is back on the open road – thanks to a simple device she invented herself.

‘We’ve been married 37 years and Chris has always had motorbikes – we’ve travelled all over on them. As the Parkinson’s got worse, I couldn’t do it anymore, and it wasn’t the same for Chris, going out on his own,’ explains Sandra, of Spalding, Lincolnshire.

Sandra had suffered with back pain for years, which forced her to retire from her job as a payroll clerk at just 37. Then she began to develop other symptoms.

‘It started in my right little finger, it wouldn’t stay still. I didn’t really worry about it. I’d always had a bad back, too, but I put that down to a nerve,’ she recalls.

‘Then things suddenly got worse. One day, everything was on the move – my arm, my leg, it was quite dramatic. It was almost a relief to be diagnosed in August 2002, but then I went into a phase of denial and deep depression.’

The couple tried to carry on as best they could, but Sandra’s mobility became poorer, until Chris, 64, became her full-time carer.