Request for help 

We have received a request from Annalisa Palisca, a third year student at Royal Holloway Univerisity taking a Media Arts degree. Annalisa would like to make a short film about XP and is looking for XP families to help her. Below is her introduction, if you are interested in helping Annalisa, please contact her on e-mail [email protected] or contact Sandra Webb at XP UK Headquarters.

I am an Italian student at Royal Holloway University and I have just entered my third year of a degree in Media Arts. I have wandered with great interest and admiration through the XP Support Group web pages. I found them incredibly informative and especially a great meeting point for the families and the patients suffering from XP.

I first came across an article about patients suffering from XP in an Italian magazine, and I was really struck by it and what it was discussing. Ignorantly, I had no idea that such a disease existed, but I somehow felt really close to all those people the article was talking about. I decided to research XP more deeply and by following the XP Society web site I arrived at the UK organisation. As I discovered that there was this Support Group in the UK I thought it would be a great opportunity for me to bring together this interest with my studies.

As a third year student in Media Arts, each student has to produce a 10 minute documentary about anything they like. My first thought was that I could produce my documentary on the XP disease. I thought this could be a possibility for me to help children and adults suffering from XP by making a short piece about them that would, as it says on the XPS website: "help increase public awareness of XP". Of course, my documentary would be a project that would remain in the environment of the university ,but as my main purpose is to give a hand to the XP patients, my aim would be to share the final piece with your organisation. I was thinking of making a very humanistic portrayal of the disease by looking and talking to the patients, and not as much a factual or medicine-based documentary. Do you think that a few of patients or even the families of the patients would be available or would agree to be filmed and interviewed? I believe that it has the potential to be a very successful and valuable project, as much for you as for me. Furthermore, I would be able to apply what I have learnt in these years of university while at the same time doing what I can for the people suffering of XP. Honestly, this would be my greatest achievement. I thank you for your time and your attention. I look forward to hearing from you soon. 

Yours Sincerely, 

Annalisa Palisca

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