Joy Paul, a radiographer at University Hospital Ayr picked up two silver medals for women’s doubles and mixed doubles, and a bronze in singles at the 2023 International Table Tennis Federation World Parkinson’s Table Tennis Championships in Crete in November.
Joy was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2008. Sometime after being diagnosed, Joy came across an article which said there was scientific evidence that playing table tennis helps improve the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.
Joy said, “The article went onto give information about the first Parkinson’s World Table Tennis Championships held in New York in 2019 and that the World Championships would be in Berlin and open to anyone with Parkinson’s.”
Being eager to find out more, Joy contacted a local coach and by complete coincidence, another woman with Parkinson’s disease had done the same and the new group quickly grew in numbers.
Joy has had great success since entering her first competition, the UK National Championships in August 2021, where she picked up a bronze medal. She then travelled to Berlin for the World Championships soon after and made it to the quarter final stage.
Joy added, “Table tennis has given me a renewed lust for life and a hobby which I love.
“Before table tennis, I hadn’t told many people about my diagnosis. I didn’t attend any support groups for fear of seeing how bad I might get.
“Table tennis has changed everything. I now have many friends with Parkinson’s Disease and, as well as gaining a support group, I have given hope to some younger, newly diagnosed people that you can still work, move and compete 15 years after being diagnosed.”