Joel Maxwell

21:36, Nov 16 2017

A single-engine plane trundled down its runway with Helen Fitton at the controls, her flying instructor beside her, and two of her kids in the back, before they all soared off the ground.

"My daughter was going, 'But you're scared of flying', and I'm going, 'Not any more'."

The incident, in April, came after Fitton was told last year that she had Parkinson's disease.

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Helen Fitton prepares to fly during her pilot training - after her Parkinson's diagnosis.

"I came home and cried solidly for about three or four days," she said of the shock diagnosis.

Her first thoughts were "Isn't that like, really bad? ... You think Michael J Fox, Muhammad Ali".

JOEL MAXWELL/STUFF

Fitton, of Waikanae, was diagnosed with Parkinson's aged 42.

Parkinson's is typically more prevalent in those over 60. It is a progressive, degenerative disorder of the brain, with gradual symptoms that can include tremors, loss of muscle control and loss of co-ordination. It is not fatal.

For Fitton, who lives on the Kāpiti Coast, north of Wellington, it started in June 2015, with a limp, then a tumble when she was chasing her 5-year-old son. Then the mother of four found she was struggling with her left hand when playing the piano.

The condition, which was yet to stop her doing anything, had actually "spurred me on", she said.

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Fitton jokes about people getting the kitty-eyed "Puss in Boots from Shrek" look when she tells them she has Parkinson's.

"Because it does make you take a long, hard look at your life. I wanted to be a scout leader and my husband said, 'Why don't you do Air Scouts?', and I said, 'Don't be crazy, I hate flying'."

That was the point, she said: to prove to herself she could still do anything.

"For a while you think you can't, and you believe you can't. But I went off and I learned how to fly a plane."

Originally from Yorkshire, in northern England, she speaks with laconic, unsentimental humour about people getting the kitty-eyed "Puss in Boots from Shrek" look when she tells them she has Parkinson's.

"I get really grumpy when people go, 'Oh Helen, you're such an inspiration'.

"I go, 'no, I'm not, I'm just a normal person' ... You fall apart for a while, then you pick yourself up again and you keep going."

In addition to learning to fly, she has retrained in web design and development. "Now I'm at the pointy end, and trying to get a job."