Hope is named after a British actor
George Harris, the actor who played the wizard Kingsley Shacklebolt in Harry Potter, has been fighting a personal battle for nine years. Not against Death Eaters, but against Parkinson’s. And his search for a cure brought him to Mexico.
Here he underwent stem cell treatment when it was not yet authorized in the United States and Europe. His story caught the attention of Mexican filmmaker Daniel Gruener, who decided to tell it.
“When I met George he was in a wheelchair,” Gruener recalls. “It has been shocking to see how he has tried everything. Now he walks, he expresses himself well… before he ate through a straw and now he can chew.”
Thus was born “Champion of Hope”, a documentary funded by donations that has already toured seven countries. This World Parkinson’s Day, they will take advantage of the lighting of monuments such as Diana the Huntress to record new scenes.
A march for visibility
Although Harris will not be physically in Mexico City this year, his cause will be. The young Cintya Aragón and other patients will march along Paseo de la Reforma to make visible what it means to live with this condition.
“George is looking for a cure for neurodegenerative diseases,” explains Gruener. “We have crossed paths with many people along the way… Saturday was the first time they came together to raise their voices.”
The film shows not only medical treatment, but a human transformation. From someone who arrived in a wheelchair to someone who today walks and eats without help. A real spell that has nothing to do with magic wands.
