18 June 2013
A FILM charting the real-life experiences of one man's battle with motor neurone disease (MND), a rare incurable illness that leaves sufferers unable to walk, talk and breathe, is to be screened in Sheffield.
Entitled 'I am Breathing', the acclaimed documentary recounts the last few months of the life of Neil Platt, a young father who was diagnosed with MND at the age of 33. Neil, who attended the Sheffield Motor Neurone Disease Care and Research Centre at the Royal Hallamshire as a patient, became paralysed from the neck down within one year of being diagnosed with the disease.
Special screenings are to take place at the Showroom Cinema on Friday 21 June at 10am and at the Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience (SITraN), a world-class centre for MND research based in Sheffield, on Monday 24 June at 5pm.
The film recounts Neil’s thoughts and feelings as his perspective on life changes, which he documented in his blog, Plattitude, and is being released internationally to mark June as Motor Neurone Disease Awareness Month.
There is no known cure from motor neurone disease. Around 5,000 people in the UK have the disease at any one time. Half die within 14 months of diagnosis. Neil Platt was one of the small proportion of people with MND whose family have a history of the disease.
Professor Pamela Shaw, Consultant Neurologist at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust and Professor of Neurology at the University of Sheffield, said: “Neil Platt was a wonderful, talented and resourceful person. He and his family and friends had to cope with the impact of MND at its most devastating and very shortly after the birth of his son. His courage was inspirational to all who knew him and a real motivational force to the research effort for MND within SITraN.”
SITraN is a world-class research centre, headed by Professor Pamela Shaw, Consultant Neurologist at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust and Professor of Neurology at the University of Sheffield. It brings together a team of nearly 100 international scientists who are working together to fight the disease.
Researchers from SITraN are currently trialling a new device called a diaphragm pacing system, which delivers electric pulses to strengthen the diaphragm, the thin dome-shaped muscle which helps breathing – making life more comfortable for patients who suffer with the illness.
Tickets for the SITraN ‘I am Breathing’ screening are available from annette.taylor@sheffield.ac.uk. Please note tickets are limited, and are available on a first come, first served basis.
ENDS
