As if appearing on ITV Good Morning Britain wasn’t enough for one day – on the drive back home, I received a call from BBC Radio5 Live and within the hour and sat in the car just off the M4, I was in a live discussion with the fantastic Naga Munchetty and neurologist Dr Jeremy Stern who is an expert in Tourette’s Syndrome.
We discussed misconceptions, stigmas, the comorbidities of Tourettes that people are not aware of and the massive outpouring of emotion and love from the Glastonbury Festival crowd towards Lewis Capaldi as he struggled with tics during his set in front of the pyramid stage.
Watching it was quite moving and emotional for most people, but seeing him struggle with his tics throughout the song was hard to watch, but mostly how the audience were encouraging him and supporting him which was the thing that touched me most.
Wilamena
We spoke for ten minutes and covered a wide variety of topics surrounding Tourette’s Syndrome, from how it impacts my life, what tics I struggle with, medication and also my music which they played from my latest cello performance.
Wow, that is beautiful Wilamena, so you can sort of lose yourself as you are so focused when you are playing?
Naga Munchetty
Naga spoke about how Tourette’s has been used as a joke and has been misrepresented. Dr Jeremy Stern spoke about involuntary swearing but how that is a relatively rare form of Tourettes as it affects around 10% of those with Tourette’s Syndrome.
It was a fascinating discussion that was inspired by Lewis Capalid’s moving set at Glastonbury, but that dug deep into the science of the condition.
Listen and watch the entire interview below.
Thank you to BBC Radio5 Live for sharing the footage with me.
Wilamena
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