The future of Parkinsons disease diagnosis could be completely changing and its all thanks to one extraordinary woman.

In this episode of the BBC Two programme Incredible Medicine: Dr Westons Casebook, Dr Weston investigated cases of people with phenomenal brains all over the world.

In one of the most amazing stories, one woman, Joy Milne, shares her unique ability to smell things others cant.

As a nurse I found I could smell a lot of things, like blood, she said. I didnt realise not everyone could smell them.

This didnt affect her life too much until she stumbled across what has become known as her sensory superpower.

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It's a heavy, musky smell

Joy Milne

When her husband Les hit his mid-thirties, Joy started to notice his smell had changed. She said: I started to nag him that he needed to shower a bit more and brush his teeth better.

But Les insisted he was washing just as frequently as before.

Soon after, he was diagnosed with Parkinsons disease, a progressive neurological condition for which there is no cure. The main symptoms are tremors, rigidity and slowness of movement.

Its not easy to diagnose, and there are currently no laboratory tests to confirm it but this could all change thanks to Joys ability.

As her and her husband encountered other Parkinsons patients, she discovered why Les had smelled so different to her.

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Tremor - One of the most noticeable signs of Parkinson's is a tremor that often starts in the hands or fingers when they are relaxed

After the first group we went to I said, they smell the same as you Les. These people smell like you.

She described the Parkinsons scent as a Heavy, musky smell.

In 2012 Joy attended a talk by Tilo Kunath, a Parkinsons specialist. At the end she stood up and asked a question: Why arent we using the smell of Parkinsons?

A bemused Tilo contacted her after the talk and was shocked to hear how she had noticed Less scent difference even before he was diagnosed.

Tilo recruited 12 volunteers, six with Parkinsons and six without, and Joy was given their t-shirts to smell.

She identified all six of the Parkinsons sufferers but said one of the non-Parkinsons volunteers had the condition too. However, six months later that person was also diagnosed with the disease.

Tests show that Joy really can smell Parkinsons and can detect it before patients have any symptoms and this is good news for scientists.

The scent was strongest for Joy on the backs of the t-shirts, meaning it was coming from the volunteers sebum, an oily or waxy matter thats secreted to lubricate and waterproof our skin and hair.

Chemists tested this and found 9,000 molecules made up this sebum. If they could isolate the ones that differ between Parkinsons sufferers and non-sufferers, they could potentially create an accurate diagnostic test to detect Parkinsons much earlier.

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Incredible Medicine: Real-life superhero SMELLS Parkinson's disease before it's diagnosed - Express.co.uk