I Swear

The remarkable true story of the UK's most prominent ambassador for Tourette's Syndrome. How a normal football-mad, working class 12-year-old boy developed tics which fast became an extreme form Tourette's Syndrome - involuntary movement, barking and yelping, swearing: often giving voice to the worst possible thing you could imagine saying. No-one understood the condition in 1980s Galashiels and John's behaviour split his family; he was expelled from school, over-medicated in hospital, and left home at 17. A friend's mother took him in, helped him find a flat, a job, and ultimately his vocation educating others. John was awarded an MBE by Queen Elizabeth II at Holyrood Palace. His story ends with the discovery of potential treatment for what is an incurable condition.