IT was a video call with her daughter that led Janet Starbuck to the neurologist who diagnosed her with Parkinson’s.

“I was on Skype with my daughter, Samantha, who lives in Australia and she pointed out that I had a discrepancy on my left hand side,” Janet recalled. “Sometimes my left arm can feel ‘alien’. She recommended I should see a specialist. Within a week of seeing them I got a diagnosis.”

Luckily Samantha was a neurophysio and was able to recognise something was amiss, but Janet had already been experiencing other symptoms that she had simply put down to the ageing process.

“I kept falling – over many years – and breaking limbs, but I put it down to old age. I told myself it was ‘just aches and pains’ and to stop whingeing and get on with it.”

In the February she had broken her arm, in the same place she’d broken it five years earlier. Then last summer, around the time of her diagnosis, she suffered a collar bone fracture.

Alongside the physical symptoms, Janet, who is 68, was also struck by a dramatic loss of self-confidence.

“I wasn’t capable of doing anything because my hand was stuck by my side,” Janet said.

Although her husband of 45 years, Geoff, would take her out in the car, Janet ceased going to activities she’d previously enjoyed, such as her regular yoga class in Allendale.

And as the couple live in a small North Pennines village, Janet found herself becoming more and more isolated.

It’s a pattern Vivienne Rogerson, area development manager for the charity Parkinson’s UK, recognises.

“It’s very common that people withdraw, because you lose your confidence in your abilities,” she said.

Yet despite the remoteness of rural communities, it’s also their strength that people tend to look out for each other and Janet’s yoga group was not going to let her languish at home!

Val Duncan, Janet’s teacher, has never forgotten the friendliness offered to her when she was diagnosed with breast cancer shortly after moving to Ninebanks from York – as well as the ongoing support of the members of her yoga group.

Val said: “If Janet had been in a city she might have been forgotten about, but I kept in touch and people in the yoga group kept in touch and went to see her, and we kept encouraging her.”

Janet has not only returned to the yoga group, but now also attends the first ‘Parkinson’s Cafe’ in the Tyne Valley, launched earlier this year, which Val hosts in conjunction with Parkinson’s UK at Allendale Forge Studios.

It is one of only four such cafes in Newcastle and Northumberland. Vivienne said the idea was to augment the support already on offer through the traditional Tynedale Support Group run by Pauline Hadaway at Newbrough Town Hall.

Cafe culture was another way of getting people with the condition out into a social setting in a low-key manner said Vivienne.

“We already have a local support group network, but there are only five north of the River Tyne and they are limited in capacity with volunteers because of the difficulties of rural transport etcetera.

“So the idea of the cafes was to try to provide mutual support in a local area that was very discreet – it’s not about wearing t shirts or having banners.

“It’s about having a volunteer in a cafe so for people living with Parkinson’s, they’ll be just like anyone else going for a coffee and a chat without being labelled. It’s also an opportunity to make contact with Parkinson’s UK and for us to signpost what is out there.

“Some people don’t want to be identified by the condition, so cafes seemed to be the thing.”

The Allendale cafe – held between 11.30am and 12.30pm on the second Thursday of each month – primarily offers informal chat and the chance to meet new people.

Or, like Janet, you might run into somebody you already know. Before becoming ill, Janet used to play tennis in Allendale with local resident Helena Hay.

Helena, a former head of maths at Hexham Middle School, had been diagnosed at the relatively young age of 46, after becoming aware of a tremor in her right hand.

“My father had it as well, so I recognised it, although my neurologist says it is statistically unlikely that it is hereditary,” said Helena, who is now 61.

Indeed, as Vivienne points out: “We don’t yet know exactly why people get Parkinson’s, but researchers think it’s a combination of genetic and environmental factors that cause the dopamine-producing nerve cells to die.”

As yet there is also no cure, but there are lots of different treatments, therapies and support available to help people manage the condition.

Both Janet and Helena take medication to control their symptoms and Helena is looking into the possibility of having deep brain stimulation,which can help control movement symptoms for longer than medication alone.

Helen, who was a founder member of the Tynedale support group, said: “I think the cafe’s great. One of the fears people have about going to groups is that they will be faced with the future.

“I went through that, where you’re afraid to see people further down the line than you are in terms of progression. But for me, it’s a help to talk to other people with the condition.

“I would say to people that although you might not want to face your future straight away, there may come a time when you do want to join in with people and not feel that you are being judged – to have a cuppa without being afraid people are looking and thinking you have the DTs.”

Val, who is celebrating 10 years of her yoga group this year, decided to mark the anniversary with a special fund-raiser last month – a village garden party, with the funds split between Parkinson’s UK and Butterwick Hospice Care.

Vivienne said she hoped more people like Val would volunteer to set up Parkinson’s cafes in Tynedale.

l For more information, Vivienne can be contacted at vrogerson@parkinsons.org.uk. You can also call the Parkinson’s UK confidential helpline on 0808 800 0303