FALLS among sufferers of Parkinson's disease could become a thing of the past, thanks to a new study.

People with the tremor condition are being recruited for the research, which aims to find out whether exercise programmes can help to prevent falls.

If the trial proves to be successful, such exercise programmes may be offered more routinely to Parkinson's disease sufferers in the future.

Currently only around 20 per cent of patients are referred for exercise therapy, and their programmes are usually less intensive than that being tested in this study at the University of Southampton.

The three-year project, which is being funded by a £150,000 grant from national medical research charity Action Research, is recruiting patients from Bournemouth and Christchurch who have already had two or more falls in the last year.

Half the patients will be visited by a physiotherapist at home to take part in a programme of exercises once a week for six weeks, while the other half will form a control group.

Parkinson's disease sufferer June Mattless, from Horton Heath, Hampshire, said every patient should be given exercise therapy.

The 58-year-old added: "It would help. The only exercise I get is where I get the side-effect where I'm twitching about all over the place.

"I think it would be a great help because we often get very stiff."

Research therapist Louise Fazakarley will be co-ordinating the project, in association with a physiotherapist.

She said: "Medication usually plays an important role in treating Parkinson's disease, but the proposed exercise programme will work on aspects of the patients' mobility that drug therapy doesn't usually reach.

"If these home-based exercises are shown to be effective, this could improve the quality of life for thousands of Parkinson's disease sufferers in the future."

In the UK, one in 500 people have Parkinson's.

Parkinson's disease is a neurological disease involving involuntary tremors and the stiffening up of limbs.

Patients have a quality of life but everyday tasks become increasingly difficult as the disease progresses.