Bryn Williams (37) discovered that he had the crippling illness back in September — and within three months of his diagnosis he had already devised plans to create a 'Wobbly Williams' website to offer hope to other sufferers.

Patent lawyer Bryn, who lives in Roman Drive, explained that he first saw a doctor back in November 2006 after noticing that his right hand was trembling.

He said: "At first the doctor felt that it was nothing to worry about but I ended up going back the following July and my doctor did several tests.

"I actually failed the movement test and I was then referred to a neurologist at the Southern General before I eventually learned that I had Parkinson's disease.

"My initial thoughts were Muhammed Ali has this and that was it really as I didn't know what it all meant and how it affected me."
Facts

The illness, which affects over 100,000 people in Britain at any one time, is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that often impairs the sufferer's motor skills and speech, as well as other functions.

After learning his diagnoses, Bryn immediately began searching for information and it was upon doing this that he discovered that there was not one good source for gaining facts on Parkinson's disease.

The father-of-two, who lives with his wife Vicky and daughters Ella (6) and Rebecca (4), said: "When I started searching the internet, there were few websites that gave a source of hope to sufferers of the illness.

"When it got to Christmas time, I decided I wanted to do something and that's when I came up with a plan for the website.

"I wanted to show people that having the illness is not all doom and gloom and you can be optimistic, especially since there is a lot of research which seems to be positive about the prospects of finding a cure."

Bryn launched www.wobblywilliams.com in March this year and since its opening around 10,000 people have visited the site.

With a personal blog from Bryn and all the latest news on research, the website has picked up a strong following — and now it has even turned into a fundraising spot with £5,800 raised to go towards the charities Parkinson's Disease Society and The Cure Parkinson's Trust.

Bryn is hoping to raise £26,000 by the end of the year and he expects that this will be boosted by a charity walk he is taking part in with 120 other walkers along The West Highland Way route in September.

Bryn will also be taking part in the Freshnlo Great Scottish Run which will take place on Sunday, September 7 — and River City actress Libby McArthur recently came on board to offer her support to his bid to run the race.

Libby, who plays Gina Buchanan in the BBC Scotland soap opera, presented Bryn with a cheque for £500 which was an amount spontaneously raised by Hays Recruitment during the Association for Public Service Excellence (APSE) dinner last month.

Hays became involved with Wobbly Williams after Willie McFall, a business manager at Hays, heard about Bryn at the APSE dinner from their mutual friend Ian Kilpatrick, managing director of Prospects Group Glasgow.

Prospects Group encouraged the Hays staff to raise money for Wobbly Williams through free t-shirts and paying their entry fee into the Freshnlo Great Scottish Run.

Despite his spectacular fundraising efforts, Bryn does, however, still feel that more needs to be done to increase funding and research for the disease and he believes that a celebrity endorsement would do that.

He said: "If there is a celebrity out there who has the disease then I think they should come forward.

"It affects so many people but often many are too ashamed to admit that they have it.

"We need someone to tell the world about Parkinson's disease and we really need a champion of the illness in Great Britain."