After years spent honing his skills as cinema’s all-action hero, Bruce Willis’s announcement that he is retiring from acting after being diagnosed with aphasia has come as a shock to his fans and peers alike.
“To Bruce's amazing supporters, as a family we wanted to share that our beloved Bruce has been experiencing some health issues and has recently been diagnosed with aphasia, which is impacting his cognitive abilities,” said his family on Instagram. “As a result of this and with much consideration, Bruce is stepping away from the career that has meant so much to him.”
What is aphasia?
According to the NHS website: “Aphasia is when a person has difficulty with their language or speech. It’s usually caused by damage to the left side of the brain, for example, after a stroke. People with aphasia often have trouble with the four main ways people understand and use language. These are: reading, listening, speaking, typing or writing.
“Speaking problems are perhaps the most obvious, and people with aphasia may make mistakes with the words they use.”
Although Willis’s family have not disclosed whether he suffered a stroke or brain damage, the symptoms of the disorder have made it impossible for him to memorise and deliver his lines. The actor, 67, had, in recent years, started wearing an earpiece on set so he could be fed his lines.
‘Game of Thrones’ star Emilia Clarke says she ‘wanted to die’
The British actress, 35, who played Daenerys Targaryen in hit show Game of Thrones, has spoken about her own battle with the condition after a stroke in 2011.
She revealed she suffered an aneurysm that caused a stroke and subarachnoid haemorrhage soon after wrapping up the first season. It left her requiring brain surgery and unable to remember her name.
"I was suffering from a condition called aphasia, a consequence of the trauma my brain had suffered," she wrote in an essay for The New Yorker in 2019. “In my worst moments, I wanted to pull the plug. I asked the medical staff to let me die. My job — my entire dream of what my life would be — centred on language, on communication. Without that, I was lost.”
The actress said that for her, the condition was temporary: “I was sent back to the ICU and, after about a week, the aphasia passed. I was able to speak."
Sharon Stone and Randy Travis had to relearn to read and speak
Oscar-nominated actress Sharon Stone has spoken publicly about the aphasia-like symptoms she experienced after suffering a stroke in 2001 that caused a cerebral haemorrhage.
"I came home from that stroke stuttering, couldn't read for two years,” the Basic Instinct star told ABC News. “It's been a humbling journey. I was on Law & Order ... and I had a hard time with my lines. I can talk about it now because I'm OK now ... I feel really good about talking and having my full vocabulary.”
Country star Randy Travis has also spoken about the aphasia-like symptoms he experienced, after which he had to relearn how to speak, following a stroke in July 2013.
"When we first returned home, I could barely speak at all,” he wrote in his 2019 memoir. “We spent three months in speech therapy before I learned to say the letter 'A.' Eventually, after about a year and a half, I could say 'yup,' 'nope,' and 'bathroom.' I could also say 'I love you' and a few other phrases but not much more. All this was extremely frustrating for me; I felt like I was trapped inside the shell of my body."
Read more about the coronavirus
EA Sports FC 26
Publisher: EA Sports
Consoles: PC, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox Series X/S
Rating: 3/5
It's up to you to go green
Nils El Accad, chief executive and owner of Organic Foods and Café, says going green is about “lifestyle and attitude” rather than a “money change”; people need to plan ahead to fill water bottles in advance and take their own bags to the supermarket, he says.
“People always want someone else to do the work; it doesn’t work like that,” he adds. “The first step: you have to consciously make that decision and change.”
When he gets a takeaway, says Mr El Accad, he takes his own glass jars instead of accepting disposable aluminium containers, paper napkins and plastic tubs, cutlery and bags from restaurants.
He also plants his own crops and herbs at home and at the Sheikh Zayed store, from basil and rosemary to beans, squashes and papayas. “If you’re going to water anything, better it be tomatoes and cucumbers, something edible, than grass,” he says.
“All this throwaway plastic - cups, bottles, forks - has to go first,” says Mr El Accad, who has banned all disposable straws, whether plastic or even paper, from the café chain.
One of the latest changes he has implemented at his stores is to offer refills of liquid laundry detergent, to save plastic. The two brands Organic Foods stocks, Organic Larder and Sonnett, are both “triple-certified - you could eat the product”.
The Organic Larder detergent will soon be delivered in 200-litre metal oil drums before being decanted into 20-litre containers in-store.
Customers can refill their bottles at least 30 times before they start to degrade, he says. Organic Larder costs Dh35.75 for one litre and Dh62 for 2.75 litres and refills will cost 15 to 20 per cent less, Mr El Accad says.
But while there are savings to be had, going green tends to come with upfront costs and extra work and planning. Are we ready to refill bottles rather than throw them away? “You have to change,” says Mr El Accad. “I can only make it available.”
Karwaan
Producer: Ronnie Screwvala
Director: Akarsh Khurana
Starring: Irrfan Khan, Dulquer Salmaan, Mithila Palkar
Rating: 4/5
Fanney Khan
Producer: T-Series, Anil Kapoor Productions, ROMP, Prerna Arora
Director: Atul Manjrekar
Cast: Anil Kapoor, Aishwarya Rai, Rajkummar Rao, Pihu Sand
Rating: 2/5
Red Joan
Director: Trevor Nunn
Starring: Judi Dench, Sophie Cookson, Tereza Srbova
Rating: 3/5 stars
F1 line ups in 2018
Mercedes-GP Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas; Ferrari Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen; Red Bull Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen; Force India Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez; Renault Nico Hülkenberg and Carlos Sainz Jr; Williams Lance Stroll and Felipe Massa / Robert Kubica / Paul di Resta; McLaren Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne; Toro Rosso TBA; Haas F1 Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen; Sauber TBA
The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 420hp
Torque: 623Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)
On sale: Now
Tips for SMEs to cope
- Adapt your business model. Make changes that are future-proof to the new normal
- Make sure you have an online presence
- Open communication with suppliers, especially if they are international. Look for local suppliers to avoid delivery delays
- Open communication with customers to see how they are coping and be flexible about extending terms, etc
Courtesy: Craig Moore, founder and CEO of Beehive, which provides term finance and working capital finance to SMEs. Only SMEs that have been trading for two years are eligible for funding from Beehive.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Lamsa
Founder: Badr Ward
Launched: 2014
Employees: 60
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: EdTech
Funding to date: $15 million
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Wicked: For Good
Director: Jon M Chu
Starring: Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Jonathan Bailey, Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Yeoh, Ethan Slater
Rating: 4/5
If%20you%20go
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