TV

I do bang on a lot about Prader-Willi Syndrome. You might have noticed.

Most people have never heard of the syndrome, and anything I can do to help change that fact, I will.

But I'd completely forgotten about this malarkey.

I used to work in local newspapers, and a colleague had left to work on the BBC's local TV news show. She phoned me to ask if she could do a feature on my daughter's condition as part of a series on childhood obesity.

I said yes.

So here it is, lower down on the page. Scroll down a bit to see it in all its three minute glory.

I would like to share some observations with you.

1) It's a broad brush stroke piece, but it's accurate, and well-meaning. More could probably have been said about the background of the older children in it, many of whom would have been diagnosed as teenagers rather than as babies. (Genetic testing had since improved drastically since they had been born).

2) I can still remember the rising panic in my head in the swing park as I genuinely thought I had got myself stuck in the "another dinner" sentence FOREVER.

2) I hardly recognise my old home. I have since moved, but not that long ago. It's just that when I knew they'd be filming, I tidied the arse out of my house. No, that doesn't mean I sent my husband packing. I mean I cleaned it as it had never been cleaned before.

3) With the benefit of hindsight, the film actually has a subtext about adult obesity: I'm three stone heavier now, Dear God.

4) I know I'm biased, but my little girl is as cute as something that is very cute. Times a hundred.

Video is the Look East Feature on Prader-Willi Syndrome, aired in August 2004. 

Video is Television - Marquee Moon