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Welcome to the world of the Vincent D'Onofrio obsessed - and a bit of real life thrown in.


Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Watch It If You Can

Last night there was a fascinating documentary on Channel 4 about two brothers suffering from a form of the genetic condition Leukodystrophy so rare they are the only people in the world known to suffer from it.

The Clark brothers reached their 30s before begining to lose their faculties, and are reverting to childhood. It was extremely moving.

 
The Clark Brothers

Many of you will remember my student Alex who suffers from Adrenoleukodystrophy, a form of the condition that generally strikes boys aged between 5 and 10, disabling them comletely within months, and usually killing them within two years. The condition figured in the film Lorenzo's Oil. Alex, like Lorenzo, is a long-term survivor, and is now 19. He, his mother Sara and his brother Ayden featured in the programme (so did their dog JJ). The link below will take you to the programme via the online on-demand facility. Sadly, I doubt if it works outside the UK.

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-curious-case-of-the-clark-brothers/4od

It's also repeated on Thursday at 11.25pm on Channel 4.
















on Channel 4 at 11.25pm on Thursday. I highly recommend it.

4 comments:

JoJo said...

It must be hard to diagnose a condition that's so rare.

Anonymous said...

Saw the trailer, but was watching a fascinating (if sometimes gross!) documentary about the history of toilets on BBC4, so thanks for the heads-up about the repeat.

Eliza said...

I meant to watch this but got distracted by form-filling I had to do...will catch it on the on-demand service in the morning..thank you for the reminder

I did read an article on them a while back...made for sad reading

Jane said...

My brother has actually worked with a girl who has this condition...She's 18, but mentally she's regressed to the age of two. It's incredibly sad.

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