Teen opens his heart on Tourette's Syndrome

May 24 2009 by Ian Robson, Sunday Sun

WHEN he was just seven years old little Greg Storey asked his mother to slit his throat.

He had just been diagnosed with Tourette’s Syndrome and could not cope with the pain.

In a burst of passion he pleaded with his mother Kim to take his life.

Now, eight years later, Greg has revealed how he has learned to live with the condition that causes involuntary swearing.

He also suffers mental and physical tics he has no control over.

In a BBC documentary - the second he has appeared in - Greg tells how he has managed to cope.

In the first film in 2002 cameras followed Greg and his family through their darkest days.

At the time his parents Kim and Paul told the Sunday Sun of their ordeal in a heart-rending interview.

We spoke to the couple at their home in Pickering, North Yorkshire, and made paper aeroplanes with Greg.

The lad told us how he gave his different tics names like the Big Blaster and how he could not pick his favourite sweets from a bag because he could feel a tic building up.

The new programme this week brings his tale up to date.

In Tourette’s: I Can't help It, Greg, now 15, reveals the highs and lows of living with the condition often misinterpreted as bad behaviour by the watching public.

He said: “After the last film I went through a very bad patch.

“I used to collapse like a rag doll, I could not move at all, I could not even talk and the only way I could communicate was by blinking.

“That was really awful but it's faded now thankfully.”