Over 16s page

Teenagers and adults living with hemiplegia

This is a page for teenagers and adults who have hemiplegia. It is a new page and we hope to hear from our members and supporters about what they would like to see here. We will be launching the page shortly with two short films, both of which were made by adult HemiHelp members.

HemiHelp Teenage Fun Day Film

This short film was made by 18 year old Daniel Gray, as part of a sixth form media project. Daniel shot the film at a Fun Day for Teenagers who have hemiplegia at Stepping Stones School in Surrey. The film features interviews with teenagers about their lives and footage of activities at the Fun Day.

One in a Thousand

One in a Thousand is an animated film made by 23 year old Thomas Holton, who has left sided hemiplegia. Thomas tells us why he made the film:

Part of my final project was to produce a short computer-aided animation, and for this I chose the subject of hemiplegia.‘One in a Thousand’ is a short animated film about the uphill struggle of life for someone coping with hemiplegia. As someone who has hemiplegia, I found that I wanted to make people more aware of the condition and to help them understand the problems a person with hemiplegia can face on a daily basis. To briefly sum up the film, the sequence opens with the main character walking towards the camera. As he moves into the foreground he splits in half, to create ‘able’ and ‘less-able’ halves of the figure. The characters then approach an assault course made from books and other learning equipment, representing the challenges of education and physical obstacles faced by a hemiplegic. Throughout the piece the ‘able’ half of the character helps the other half. This was intended to represent how someone who has hemiplegia can adapt to tasks by using their able bodied side to support their hemiplegic side, and that they can still achieve. Indeed, throughout my life I have found many ways to use the right side of my body to manipulate the left to complete tasks.

If you are interested in reading first hand accounts of what it is like to live with hemiplegia, follow this link to read experiences shared by teenagers, adults and parents. We will be putting up a report on the results of HemiHelp's Over 16s survey, which asked people living with hemiplegia about their lives, here soon. If you have comments on this page or would like to submit something for the page, please contact us on info@hemihelp.org.uk