A SIX-FIGURE National Lottery grant is set to boost welfare visits to an estimated 150 Parkinson's Disease sufferers in Wyre Forest.

The £111,170 will fund two part-time visitors for three years in the welfare service, which covers Wyre Forest, Wychavon, Worcester and Malvern Hills.

The service was launched in 1997 with the aid of a National Lottery Charities Board grant. It provides a total of 25 hours of visits a week to victims of the neurological condition.

The new grant is the second piece of good news announced recently by the Parkinson's Disease Society, the Worcester and District branch of which covers Wyre Forest and Wychavon.

Primary care groups, including those in Wyre Forest and Wychavon, will be arranging a programme of tuition and training for two district or practice nurses from each area to be given added responsibility for Parkinson's care in the community.

Arthur Burgess, Parkinson's Disease Society branch secretary for Worcester and District, said: "The service that they provide will reduce the demands on consultants, ease pressure on hospital admissions and provide support for general practitioners and district nurses.

"This development has been made possible by the generous support of the society, the pharmaceutical industry and the Rank Charitable Trust, who have recognised the special nature of this pilot project.