Sharon Reading

I started my career as a staff nurse in the Department of Clinical Neurosciences, NHS Lothian. Following a move to Newcastle in 2003, I joined the Movement Disorder Service as a clinical trials co-ordinator, specialising in research for Parkinson's. I became a Parkinson's Nurse Specialist in 2007 and gained my non-medical prescribing qualification in 2012.

I developed my interest in dementia and gained my MSc in Dementia studies in 2016 which gave me confidence to set up my nurse-led cognitive clinics for people with Parkinson's related dementia. Since moving back to NHS Lothian in 2021, joining the Parkinson's nurse-led service, I have established my nurse-led clinics in East Lothian, Midlothian, Leith and the Anne Rowling Clinic. I have also set up a joint clinic with one of our Medicine of the Elderly consultants to treat people with Parkinson's who have sialorrhoea [drooling] with botulinum toxin injections.