A MUM of two is fighting back from a shock diagnosis by organising a major fundraiser for research into Parkinson's disease.

Leah Forster, 42, has recently been diagnosed with Parkinson’s, and is organising a Party for Parkinson’s to raise much-needed funds for research.

The teaching assistant at Brompton Primary School and her husband Andrew are busy making the final arrangements for the event on Friday, October 9 at the Troubadour nightclub in Northallerton.

Mrs Forster began having issues with her left side last year and went to the doctors. “I was referred to a neurologist who could tell the minute I walked in it was likely to be Parkinson’s,” she said.

“An MRI scan revealed nothing but I was later told by the doctor that he saw one person a year in their 40s with Parkinson’s and unfortunately this year it was me.”

Parkinson’s is believed to be caused by insufficient dopamine in the brain. It affects one in 500 people and at the moment there is no cure.

The party will feature former Northallerton School students Matthew and Thomas Rhodes with their band Goldsands, and an auction featuring a huge number of donated lots.

Tickets are available at Sherwoods Northallerton on Standard Way and cost £5.