THE Royal Blackburn Hospital is taking part in the world’s largest research study to find a cure for Parkinson’s disease.

Parkinson’s UK is launching the in-depth research study tracking people with the neurological condition, and the Blackburn hospital is one of the primary research centres.

The project hopes to find better ways of both diagnosing and treating the brain condition, which affects almost 130,000 people in the UK.

Charity Parkinson’s UK is looking for 3,000 volunteers with the condition, and their siblings, to take part in the study.

Parkinson’s is a debilitating condition with symptoms which include tremors, mood changes, movement difficulties, loss of smell and speech problems.

The charity said it was investing more than £1.6m in the “tracking Parkinson’s” study with the long-term aim of boosting the chances of finding a cure.

The study will follow 3,000 volunteers — people recently diagnosed with the disease, people diagnosed aged under 50 and their brothers and sisters.

It aims to identify markers in the blood which could be used to create a simple diagnostic test for the disease, something which does not yet exist.

Parkinson’s UK said early diagnosis was crucial if doctors were to be able to prescribe the right drugs for people with the condition.

The responses to various treatments of those taking part in the study will be closely monitored for up to five years.

Eventually the project will link up to 40 research centres across the UK.

Dr Kieran Breen, director of research and innovation at Parkinson’s UK, said: “Studies like this could make a huge difference and help us to ultimately find a cure.

"Finding a cure for Parkinson’s is like building a gigantic jigsaw, but we still have a number of the pieces missing. This vital new study will help us fill in some of the gaps in our knowledge.

"We hope ‘Tracking Parkinson’s’ will also help us to identify people who have a greater ‘risk’ of developing Parkinson’s and we can monitor them more accurately.”