"More than Palsy" Campaign for World Cerebral Palsy Day 2025
On the occasion of World Cerebral Palsy Day 2025, the FightTheStroke Foundation presents "More than Palsy," an international awareness campaign about Cerebral Palsy, created in collaboration with DUDE:Milan and under the patronage of the Cariplo Foundation, the International Cerebral Palsy Society, Cerebral Palsy Europe and the European Academy for Childhood-onset Disability.
Despite being the most common cause of lifelong physical disability, Cerebral Palsy remains a condition that is still little known and underrepresented in the world of disability communication. The campaign's goal is therefore to raise public awareness, reaching out to both people with Cerebral Palsy and those who, hearing about the condition for the first time, simply want to support the work that 10 international partners do to help children, young adults, and families living with this disability.
But who better than a person with Cerebral Palsy to talk about what it means to live with it today, in a society that too often tends to forget it? That's why Jack Hunter, a Scottish actor and playwright with Cerebral Palsy, was involved. He's already actively involved in awareness-raising activities for this condition and is the author of an autobiographical slam poem entitled "You've Got to be Ballsy to Have Cerebral Palsy".
The inspiration for the campaign came from the title of the poem itself, which was then reworked through a joint writing effort between Jack Hunter, FightTheStroke Foundation and DUDE, transforming it into an even broader and more collective story. The aim was to describe Cerebral Palsy at different stages of life in the most honest—and sometimes raw—way possible. It explores the boldest and most unexpected angles of the daily lives of people with Cerebral Palsy, who face numerous challenges every day against preconceptions and social barriers, explaining that, yes, "you've got to be ballsy" to be a disabled person in a non-disabled world.
The words of the new slam poem served as the guide for filming the various scenes that make up the film. The film stars, in addition to Jack Hunter reciting his poem in typical "spoken words" style, are all people with Cerebral Palsy involved in the international network woven over the years by FightTheStroke. Each of them was chosen because they have a true story to tell: from the challenges of rehabilitation exercises—even simple ones like tying your shoelaces—which can lead to frustration, to dealing with menstruation as a teenager and inserting a tampon with half your body uncooperative; from a young man who studied and is still studying to become a doctor, to Mario, who inspired the mission of FightTheStroke—being the son of the two founders—and was himself a victim of bullying for his "dead hand." The choice of the campaign's protagonists respects the principle of diversity in the multiple conditions of Cerebral Palsy (hemiplegia, diplegia, tetra/quadriplegia), in their different geographic origins, ages, and genders.
The film was directed by Broga's, a collective of filmmakers who adopted a documentary-style filming approach and a mixed media approach, blending photos and videos, to convey the "ballsy" nature of each story with delicate realism. The original soundtrack was composed by Tommaso Porro, with the aim of accompanying the images and Jack's voice with the same rasp of his lyrics.
The result is an international campaign that highlights a strong fighting spirit and desire to overcome. We hope it will challenge those hearing about Cerebral Palsy for the first time, inspire those who have lived with it for years to assert their rights, and inform future parents about the existence of this condition, as well as the support that all the partners in the network of international associations can offer them.
View the recording of the online launch event on 2 October 2025 here:
