'Tourette's no longer defines me - I can put my music out to the world'

Samantha Fletcher

This is a great story of how someone is using their talent to raise awareness.

Just six months ago, musician Grace Cope, 19, was unable to perform in front of anyone. Now she is lead vocalist on a song to raise awareness of Tourette's syndrome and being mentored by a veteran producer who has worked with The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and Duran Duran.

According to Tourettes Action, the condition affects one in 100 school-aged children and more than 300,000 people in the UK.

"Meeting people with Tourette's, being together in that space, it was so nice," says Grace.

"I always saw Tourette's as me; like I was just Tourette's, and that's all I was," she says.

"I don't feel like that any more. I can now say I'm a singer-songwriter. I produce my own music and I can put it out to the world."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3w4pez9ll6o

Sarah Tuberty

What a great article! Thank you!

I've just recently watched Sinner's by Ryan Coogler- it's such a great movie and I was not expecting a few of the plot points which was really very cool. Largely the movie is about music- the main character (sort of inspired by famed Delta Blues player- Robert Johnson)- Sammy had the ability to transect time and space by his playing of the guitar. There is a scene in the film-"I lied to you" where Sammy can recall his ancestors and can connect with future musicians- it's a great scene!!

It got me thinking about the power of music, how it can ignite our bodies, how it can make us feel, make us loose ourselves and make us find ourselves- and how music can do all of this! I find it reflected in this story of Grace- and how she can find herself in music and hopefully others can find themselves in her music as well!