Andrew Francis died peacefully in the early hours of 25th September 2017, aged 72, following a massive stroke 9 days before. His death was unexpected and came as an enormous shock to all who knew and loved him.

Andrew's death was unconnected with his Parkinson's and he had been lucky in that his experience of Parkinson's Disease was far less dramatic than that suffered by many. He continued to sail a single-handed dinghy and generally live his life in much the same way as before his diagnosis. We were all conscious, however, that many were not so lucky in terms of the severity of their experience of the disease or level of support inherent in their lives. Parkinson's UK does such an amazing job in terms of support as well as research.

On behalf of Andrew and all who are affected by Parkinson's Disease, we thank you for visiting this site. If you have a moment more to spend on the internet, we urge you to visit https://www.parkinsons.org.uk/research/parkinsons-uk-brain-bank as this is a way that those affected and, crucially, those unaffected by Parkinson's can contribute to the fight to overcome Parkinson's at no financial cost. Awareness of the Brain Bank amongst those who are not directly affected by Parkinson's in their own lives is understandably low and if Andrew's untimely death contributes to an increase in this awareness, that will be a wonderful legacy.

Thank you. For your affection for Andrew and your support at this time for our much-loved AJ.

Yours,

Dawn, Victoria, William, Alexandra, Richard, Kate, Alexander, Harry, Annabelle, James, Emily and Beatrix.