LAST Tuesday, the Mansfield Parkinson’s Support Group weekly meeting looked a little more festive than usual with a Christmas themed lunch hosted by Dean and Gill Belle at the Delatite Hotel.

There were around 25 people in attendance including Parkinson’s sufferers, carers and even Santa made an appearance.

Chairman Charles Gilbert said the group has slowly grown over time.

“We started out with a half a dozen and now it is almost at 30,” he said.

“The group is a great space because it is simply a way to communicate.”

Charles said sometimes they have local speakers come in and give a talk.

“Ambulance Victoria came out a couple of months ago which was great,” he said.

A statistic from the Parkinson’s Australia website states, ‘150,000 people live with Parkinson’s disease in Australia and 50 Australians are diagnosed every day’.

Charles's partner Lynda Moehr said the group is like one big family.

“It’s nice to see everyone get together,” she said.

“It’s really important if you’ve got Parkinsons to continue to branch out, attend social events and have a chat.”

Throughout the lunch everyone in the room received a slip of paper and wrote down a question for Santa which he read out and answered at the end.

Some of the group’s questions included:

How will you fit my Ferrari down the chimney?

How fast is your sled?

And how many elves are in Santa’s Workshop?