Local actor Christopher Eccleston has teamed up with Aardman Amination Studios to produce a film to ‘fight misconceptions’ about dementia.
The 51-year-old, best known for his roles in Doctor Who, Shallow Grave and Thor: The Dark World, said he joined up with the creators of Wallace and Gromit to show that Alzheimer’s was not “an inevitability”.
His father, Ronnie, died from vascular demnetia in 2012 after fighting the condition for 14 years.
The 90-second stop-motion video, produced for Alzheimer’s Research UK, is fronted by the award-winning star.
It shows how dementia physically attacks the brain with an orange skin slowly peeling away to reveal sections of the fruit, which themselves start to disappear.
The brain of an Alzheimers sufferer weighs around 140 grams less than a healthy brain – approximately the weight of an orange.
Eccleston said: “We have to think differently about dementia.
“We have to stop believing dementia is an inevitability; something that simply happens to us all as we grow older. If we don’t, we’re never going to truly fight it.”
The video’s aim is to get people sharing the film using the hashtag #sharetheorange to fight misunderstandings about dementia while the scientists are fighting it in the lab.
The animation will first hit the air tonight during ITV’s Coronation Street, backed up by a two-week national TV advertising campaign.
Eccleston added: “Dementia is caused by diseases and diseases can be beaten.
“We’ve tamed diseases like cancer and heart disease and a diagnosis of either is no longer a certain death sentence. People with dementia deserve this same hope.
“This film aims to show that dementia is caused by physical processes that scientists can put a stop to.”
The campaign urges viewers to #sharetheorange in support of the organization.
