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Haunting Film Uses the Power of Dance to Raise Awareness of Motor Neurone Disease

Director made the film after losing a friend to the debilitating condition

Screen Shot 2020-06-22 at 17.03.31 — The Dance urges viewers to donate to the Motor Neurone Disease Association.Jess Journo / Motor Neurone Disease Association

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Motor neurone disease, also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a debilitating illness that afflicts hundreds of thousands of people each year, including physicist Stephen Hawking, who lived with the condition for 55 years before succumbing to it in 2018.

Currently, there is no cure, and charities say research into the disease is underfunded.

To raise awareness of the condition, Jess Journo, a 26-year-old freelance director from London, created a harrowing yet beautiful film to channel her grief after her family friend and companion, Wendy Gladwyn, died of the disease in 2018.

Journo gifted the film, titled The Dance, to U.K