Southern Health Santé Sud is spreading awareness about Parkinson's this month.

President of Medical Services Dr. Denis Fortier says it's important to spread awareness about the disease.

"In our province in any given year, we have about 6000 patients that have Parkinson's. So if you were to calculate our numbers for our region -- Southern Health Santé Sud -- we probably have in and around 1200 people at any one time having problems with Parkinson's disease. So I think the month of April is about awareness, it's also about a campaign to raise funds for research."

Fortier outlines the early warning sign.

"So early on, you'll see sort of an uncontrolled tremor. Dr. James Parkinson is the one who coined this back in 1817, because he was seeing a lot of patients back then that had uncontrollable shaking. So that's one of your first symptoms, a tremor that is uncontrolled."

Other symptoms of Parkinson's are a loss -- or dampening -- of your sense of smell, you'll also notice your writing will become smaller. Fortier says it's important to raise awareness across the country. He adds they're always campaigning for funds to help with research.