22nd April 2016 The Catholic Universe

u • TELEVISION 12 FRIDAY 22.04.16
Garin Morgan
Mary Beard at the
with Emma Willis
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Colosseum, Rome
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© ITV
© BBC/Lion Television Ltd/Caterina Turroni
Nick’s Picks
What Would Be Your Miracle (1)
Thursday 28th April
9.00pm-10.00pm
ITV
In this brand new series Emma Willis
follows the inspirational and emotional
stories of people whose lives
are transformed by the power of
modern medicine, people who are all
hoping for miracles.
In each episode Emma meets two
people having incredible operations
in the hope of changing their lives
and the lives of their families forever.
Over two years, she charts the
progress of these ordinary families
going through extraordinary times.
Having had their operations and, in
some cases, endured months and
months of rehabilitation, they reach
the moment where they find out if the
miracle they’ve dreamed of for years
will happen. From parents watching
their 10-year-old child try to take his
very first unaided steps, to a daughter
hearing her dad’s voice through her
new cochlear implants, and a woman
seeing after 30 years of blindness,
these are the incredible, climactic moments
when they realise that life
could be changing forever.
Now, thanks to modern medicine,
it’s possible to fulfill their dreams.
From scoring a goal in front of thousands
of football fans, to taking a
class at the Royal Ballet School, to
flying through the sky, in this heartwarming
series, experiences which,
for them, were previously impossible,
become a reality.
In the first episode Emma goes to
Aberdare, South Wales, to meet nineyear-old
Garin Morgan, his parents
Ashley and Adele, and big sister Emily.
Despite being a strong, healthy
baby, Garin soon began to show signs
that he was different to other children.
At the age of two he was diagnosed
with cerebral palsy and his
parents were told it meant their son
would never walk.
“That hit me very hard,” his dad,
Ashley revealed. “How do you feel?
How do you cope? You start running
through his life in fast-forward. How’s
u
television
By Nick Benson
he going to get a job? How’s it going
to affect his life as an adult?”
Garin admitted to Emma that playtime
could be quite difficult for him.
“Sometimes some of my friends play
football. I feel quite upset because
they’re all having fun and I’m just like
on my own and nobody to play with.”
Asked by Emma what his miracle
would be, Garin answered, “To
play football.”
© ITV
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In the same week Garin was diagnosed
with cerebral palsy, his mum,
Adele, fell ill and was told she had
multiple sclerosis, meaning she too is
in a wheelchair and unable to walk
unaided. It’s another reason his parents
are longing for him to leave his
wheelchair behind.
For years, Garin and his parents
have hoped that modern medicine
would offer him the chance of making
his dreams come true, and now,
thanks to surgery pioneered in America,
there’s a possibility it will.
Just two months after a successful
operation at Bristol Royal Hospital for
Children, in which nerves that connect
Garin’s brain to his legs were
cut, and the subsequent physiotherapy,
this young boy’s life could be
about to change forever. As he prepares
to step from his wheelchair and
walk unaided for the very first time,
his family and specialist team urge
him forward.
Nearly a year later Emma catches
up with the family, and there’s a surprise
visit to Cardiff City Stadium for
Garin, who has the chance to fulfil his
dream of playing football and scoring
a goal.
In this episode Emma also meets
55-year-old Andrea Dodds, a motherof-two
from Burnley, who has always
had a close relationship with her
mother, June.
“Andrea was a lovely little girl,
jovial, bubbly,” said June. “Me and
her, we’ve the same sense of humour.
We could fall on the floor laughing
at things.”
Diagnosed as partially deaf as a
child, Andrea used hearing aids,
but as she got older her hearing got
much worse and she came to rely on
lip-reading.
However, on a family trip to the
seaside Andrea became concerned
there was also something wrong with
her eyes. She was then diagnosed
with Usher Syndrome and told as well
as being deaf she was also going blind.
Today, Andrea can no longer see
well enough to read lips and, as her
condition means that what hearing
she does have is fading all the time,
her hearing aids are now nearly completely
useless.
Currently there is no cure for Andrea’s
eyesight, but she is about to be
thrown a lifeline and undergo an operation
to be fitted with a cochlear
implant, in the hope that it will allow
her to hear.
Implanted behind Andrea’s ear, the
coin-sized device, when switched on,
will feed sound directly to her brain,
though with no guarantee she will instantly
be able to hear.
Undergoing the procedure at Manchester
Royal Infirmary, Andrea returns
one month later where the
implant is switched on for the first
time. However, Andrea’s brain is unable
to understand the sounds the
implant is sending it. All Andrea can
do is wait in the hope that with practice
her brain learns to make sense of
the sounds.
Six weeks later Andrea returns to
see how her brain is managing the implant.
Because Andrea loved music so
much when she was younger, Deborah
the Audiologist wants to see if she
is now able to hear it again.
One of her favourite songs is played,
leading to a nervous wait to tell if Andrea
is able to hear it once again.
Wild Australia with Ray Mears (2)
Monday 25th April
8.00pm-8.30pm
ITV
In Wild Australia, Ray Mears delves
into the spectacularly diverse Australian
landscape to look at some of
the weird and wonderful life forms
that are able to live and survive in the
land Down Under.
From the expansive waters of the
Great Barrier Reef and the vast
wilderness of Arnhem Land, to the
teeming Cooper Creek billabongs and
the ancient heartland of the rainforest,
each episode sees Mears explore
the dramatic physical geography of
the region, the extreme weather conditions
that occur there and the
wildlife species that have adapted to
survive in those environments.
Mears encounters rare and extraordinary
creatures, such as the prehistoric
cassowary bird, the weedy sea
dragon, and the tree kangaroo, as well
as witnessing a three-month-old
humpback whale calf learning to swim
Ray Mears
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© Tin Can Island Productions