An artist who was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease eleven years ago says drawing makes her tremors "virtually disappear".

Shelagh Oates, from Maidstone, noticed that her leg was trembling and fingers were twitching in 2011, but didn't think much of it at first.

The 71-year-old teacher explained: "When it started getting more persistent we then went to the doctors about it and he sent me to a specialist.

"I went two weeks before Christmas and he diagnosed it then and there on the spot really. It was a bit of a shock even though I really knew that it was heading that way I didn't want it to be that.

"It was a very difficult Christmas and I went through all the normal stages of feeling sorry for myself and then in the January my husband and I sat down and talked about it and we used two words – adapt and overcome.

"It has really served us well over the years, we've just had to remind each other at times."

Shelagh found the first few years difficult but by 2013 she had started drawing, which is something she had always liked doing.

Before retiring in 2010, she taught young children and would draw things to demonstrate subjects. She also studied art at college.

In the first year of her retirement, she went travelling around the world which she says was wonderful.

"It seemed like we'd just got to a point where we could go where we wanted and do what we wanted and it was snatched away from us," she added.

"But when you've got memories it makes a lot of difference."

After her diagnosis, her cousin taught her how to do zentangling, which is a art method that involves creating tangles with combinations of dots, lines, simple curves.

She said: "Amazingly enough the zentangling helped me steady the Parkinson's and I found that I could draw for hours on end without shaking at all and it was like having a sense of freedom.

"As I was concentrating on the actual picture itself there was no movement in my leg or hand, and I could do it for hours – it was a nice bit of freedom every now and then.

"Now I do all my birthday and Christmas cards each year and I just really enjoy it."

Shelagh is putting an exhibition on at Allington Library which starts today and will run until March 1.

She has called it "Lockdown Challenges", and has done two previous exhibitions at the library – ‘It started with a tree’ and ‘Parky and Me'.

She said: "I do these exhibitions to encourage other people with similar problems not to give up but adapt and overcome.

"There's a big wall at the back of the library and they have different interests on there each month – it's all just such a nice idea".