A new start after 60: I spent eight years thinking I had Parkinson’s. Then doctors ‘de-diagnosed’ me

Mike Bell was 53 when he got the diagnosis that changed his life – and 61 when he learned it was wrong. He felt relieved, but also totally adrift When he was 61, Mike Bell, who had spent eight years living with a Parkinson’s diagnosis, saw a new consultant. Though he still had pains, tingling, tremors and skin problems, Bell had stopped taking his prescribed medication and his symptoms had not worsened. Further brain scans were arranged – “everything, in every possible position” – after which...

By Paula Cocozza