Movies Spotlight Lives of Patients, Families

Two dramatic new films that vividly depict what it’s like to live with aplastic anemia aplastic anemia: (ay-PLASS-tik uh-NEE_mee-uh) A rare and serious condition in which the bone marrow fails to make enough blood cells - red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. The term aplastic is a Greek word meaning not to form. Anemia is a condition that happens when red blood cell count is low. Most… and MDS recently hit the silver screens on both sides of the Atlantic.

Released in Europe in November 2015, “Rose” is the poignant story of a young girl suffering from aplastic anemia, whose family desperately seeks to find a stem cell donor to save her life. Belgian filmmaker Ritchie Vermeire – himself an aplastic anemia survivor – directed the film with the sensitivity that only comes from direct personal experience. 

The recently released American movie, “My First Miracle”, is a faith-based film telling the story of a 17-year-old girl with MDS and the hardship faced by her family when their health insurance policy is cancelled. As they too struggle against the odds to find a matched stem-cell donor, friendship and support arrives from a most unlikely source.

It’s easy to understand why directors are drawn to the complex and highly emotional storyline of finding a match. As for patients and families, it always helps when media draws attention to their health care plight. Movies have the power to boost public awareness in a big way.  We’d like the next one on bone marrow failure bone marrow failure: A condition that occurs when the bone marrow stops making enough healthy blood cells. The most common of these rare diseases are aplastic anemia, myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH). Bone marrow failure can be acquired (begin any time in life) or can be… disease to be a made-for-TV movie, since they often reach a larger audience than a low-budget independent film with limited distribution. 

Our hope is that continued media focus on these rare diseases will reduce the number of times members of our community have to hear “You have what?” when they tell people about their diagnosis.