Murwillumbah Support Group in the Northern Rivers region is celebrating its one-year anniversary – the direct result of the right person being in the right place at the right time.

That person is Group Coordinator Leigh Matthews, whose day job is Community Liaison Manager of Dovida, a provider of home care services. In this role, Leigh does a lot of community engagement which brought her into contact with the residents of the local Aveo retirement village.

There she learned of an unmet need for a local Parkinson’s Support Group. Through her experience engaging with the Lismore Parkinson’s Support Group – also within the Northern Rivers catchment – and its leader Marie Dudgeon, Leigh gained valuable insight into facilitating an established group.

“It really took off from there because I thought I’d be able to use the contacts I make in my community liaison role to find good speakers for support group meetings,” said Leigh.

She was right; speakers over the past year have included the local Parkinson’s Specialist Nurse, an exercise physiologist, an expert in mobility aids, an occupational therapist, a pharmacist, a speech therapist, and the local Member of Parliament.

Meetings usually attract 20 to 30 participants, not only from Murwillumbah but also surrounding districts such as Brunswick Heads, Pottsville and Kingscliff. The group meets on the first Friday of each month at the Murwillumbah Services Club which offers a room for free. That schedule was chosen to avoid conflicts with other meetings happening in the community.

“We don’t serve tea and coffee in the room, but we always take refreshments at the Club after our meeting. We believe in supporting the Club because they support us. Our group includes both people living with Parkinson’s and carers, but we don’t have any breakout sessions for carers because people said they’d rather stay together in one meeting to ensure everyone is well supported.”