Miscellaneous

This is a very moving film. Now we need a sequel where they discover the OMS diet and lifestyle...and recover! Something to share with everyone.
http://shift.ms/gallop/

Delightful!

Thanks Wendy.
That got me going (though not the food!).
I get patches where empathy and tears come on easily.
Such a strong urge to help others know what it's like, yet that's impossible.
Or is it.

What a beautiful love story! Interesting comment from one of the film makers that they wanted to show that living with MS doesn’t mean you have to give up on the things you want from life, but just adapt and find a different way to achieve them.

Having worked so hard with shift.ms on Gallop for the last eighteen months, I was keen to share some thinking (and we certainly did a lot!) behind the film.

The striking thing about Gallop is that we’ve chosen fiction rather than the documentary form more commonly used in ‘health’ films. We made a decision to tell just one story but endeavoured to make it open and metaphorical enough to resonate with MSers and also engage people without any experience of the disease. We steered away from the facts and stats, to concentrate on creating an individual character’s journey through diagnosis. And of course we chose a love story within which to frame this tale of a young man’s MS.

To me the film is about the struggle Dave (the central character and MSer) has in accepting that the reality of his MS can exist alongside the magic of falling in love with Karen. Initially and understandably Dave wants to shut himself off from the world. But as ever shift.ms wanted to show that living with MS doesn’t mean you have to give up on the things you want from life, but just adapt and find a different way to achieve them.

So this is what the White Horse symbolises for me; the resilience Dave, MSers, everybody can show in finding the courage, hope, trust and openness to engage as fully as possible with life. Of course that doesn’t mean negating the challenges and frustrations that MS brings, but we were keen to show that the reality of MS and the magic of life are not necessarily mutually exclusive.


Cathy John was a Creative Consultant on Gallop, she has written articles for The Independent and the story for the book Look Into My Eyes about living with MS. Her popular blog is at http://www.lickingthehoney.org.

Thanks Wendy for sharing, it was very touching to watch!

I have to admit being a single girl I was scared about love & relationships when I got diagnosed - since embracing a positive lifestyle and having hope, I'm not worried anymore that I will end up alone. It takes one wonderful strong and open minded man on my side and I believe that I will find him...and he'll find me

This is when we need a like button Charlie81!!

On one of the documentary torrent sites I watched “When I Walk” is about Jason’s physical and emotional struggle with a cruel and often unforgiving disease. He is a brave person to allow the camera to follow him through his daily battles with MS.

The film can be difficult to watch at times because while we are rooting for Jason to regain his former physical self, we are forced to watch him struggle with the realities of MS. We hold onto hope that something – anything – will be discovered to help people living with PPMS lead a better quality of life.