Al Murray to Appear in AN 'ALF AND A LARF in Support of HemiHelp, May 12

Chase away the Monday blues with an 'alf and a larf! at The Comedy Store on Monday 12th May. HemiHelp, the national charity for hemiplegia, will be hosting an evening of fun and laughter and the star guest is none other than the amazing Al Murray. As one of the UK's best-loved and most successful comics, Murray is renowned for his alter-ego, the Pub Landlord. The brilliant Paddy Lennox will be compering the evening and the line-up will also boast other fantastic names from the world of comedy including Jonny Pelham and Pippa Evans (as Loretta Maine).

HemiHelp CEO, Amy Couture said "As well as having fun and fundraising, a really important aim of the evening is to raise awareness of hemiplegia. Every day in the UK between one and two babies are born with hemiplegia which means that one child in 1,000 is affected by this lifelong, incurable condition.Yet people have rarely heard of it. One of the reasons for this is because no two people are affected in the same way". Hemiplegia leads to weakness and lack of control on one side of the body, but the physical severity will vary from one person to the next.In one child this may be very obvious; he or she may have little or no use of one hand and may limp severely. In another child it will be slight and only show when attempting specific physical activities.

Hemiplegia is actually caused by damage to the brain (most often before or around the time of birth), so it is not just physical development that may be affected. In fact, most children have additional diagnoses such as epilepsy, visual impairment, speech difficulties, perceptual problems, specific learning difficulties, emotional and behavioural problems. Often, these less visible issues can be harder for the child to cope with than the physical effects of the condition.

Iris Turner, a bubbly 5-year-old, was diagnosed with hemiplegia just before she turned one. Her mother, Hayley, describes it as the "scariest moment of her life" but says "the support from HemiHelp has helped me understand my daughter's condition and make sure she is doing her best."

For more information, visit www.hemihelp.org.uk or for tickets go to http://tinyurl.com/hemihelp-comedy. HemiHelp is located at 6 Market Road N7 9PW, London.

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