A British health activist has stressed to Bermudians that the fight against Parkinson's Disease will only be won through "medical research, education and consistency in care''.

Mary Baker, founder of the British Parkinson's Disease Foundation, spoke to the Hamilton Rotary Club on Tuesday to give residents an idea of how her organisation is slowly becoming part of a worldwide health alliance.

The BPDF joined the World Health Organisation last year and has been attending international conferences annually to discuss the next step in treating Parkinson's on a global scale.

Ms Baker explained that the collective countries had already decided on a charter which "guarantees the rights of those with the disease to the best, consistent care from specialists possible''.

She added that the next step was to have a declaration signed between the nations to really put the legalities in stone.

The health worker outlined her organisation's commitment to three main objectives in the battle against Parkinson's.

"The first is the encouragement of medical research to find out the whats, the why and the hows that are so important in treatment,'' Ms Baker said.

"What does having the disease really mean? What are the effects on those who have it? These are the sort of questions that need to be addressed in the near future.'' "The next is education. It's helping the public, both the young and the old, to understand the medication and to get more information in regards to Parkinson's,'' she added. "There's definitely a need to explain the disease to people properly.

"And last but not least is, of course, the welfare and the support of those people who are afflicted with the disease.'' Ms Baker also described that much of the foundation's work was directed at trying to get the British government to institute change to the National Health Service to make it more efficient for Parkinson's Disease sufferers.

"Our efforts are going into training specialists and finding them a place in the NHS where they will be in a position to help sufferers more effectively,'' she said.