The Sound of Music and Mary Poppins star Dame Julie Andrews has made a rare public appearance in a video for the World Parkinson’s Congress.

The 90-year-old legend appeared in a video message shared on YouTube by the World Parkinson Coalition, welcoming attendees to the event and saying she knows how devastating the disease can be.

“Good evening, everyone, I’m Julie Andrews and I’m pleased to welcome you to the seventh World Parkinson’s Congress,” she said in the clip.

“Your participation is invaluable as we seek to find a cure to this terrible disease. I know well how devastating it can be.

“May we all become a beacon of light to stop it in its tracks. Count me in as a red thread. Thank you.”

Andrews rose to worldwide fame with her Oscar-winning turn in Mary Poppins, before winning a Golden Globe award for her performance as Maria von Trapp in The Sound of Music.

In 2001, she left her mark on a whole new generation as Queen Clarisse Renaldi alongside Anne Hathaway in The Princess Diaries, before returning for the sequel three years later.

A third movie in the beloved series has been confirmed, but it’s not yet known if she will reprise her role.

More recently, Andrews has earned herself an Emmy for Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance for her role in Bridgerton as the narrator, Lady Whistledown.

Back in 2022, the veteran star revealed she hadn’t actually met any of the cast of the Netflix show in person, despite featuring heavily with her narration.

“You know I’ve never met the company in person,” she told Today show host Hoda Kotb.

“Of course, I see them on the show sometimes. But I do all my recording far, far away from them.”

Julie Andrews with her Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement award at the Venice Film Festival in 2019. Photo: Reuters

Andrews has daughter Emma Walton Hamilton, 63, with ex-husband Tony Walton, plus daughters Amy Leigh Edwards, 52, and Joanna Lynne Edwards, 48, with her late husband Blake Edwards.

She and Hamilton are set to collaborate on a re-issue of their 2010 children’s book The Great American Mousical, which gave the actor an outlet after throat surgery in 1997 meant she couldn’t keep singing professionally.

Back in 2023, she told Forbes magazine: “I would go completely mad if I didn’t have some lovely thing to work on.

“I think really, since I had a bad surgery on my throat, I’ve just turned to this with Emma and it’s been such a joy.

“It has been very refreshing for me and reviving in a way, because of course, it was a very sad event.”