At 29, Stephen Heywood discovers he has the paralyzing neural disorder ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. Filmed over five years, the documentary chronicles one family's ferocious response to an orphan disease: the kind of disease drug companies ignore because there's not enough profit in curing it. In reaction, and with no medical background, Stephen's brother Jamie creates a guerilla-science research group and in two years builds it from three people in a basement to a multi-million dollar ALS mouse facility, the largest anywhere. Finding a drug in time becomes Jamie's all-consuming obsession.
Production BBC Storyville [gb](in association with); TV2 Danmark [dk](with support from); WGBH (in association with); West City Films Inc.; ZDF/Arte [de](in association with);
Cast Names Robert Bonazoli; Benjamin Heywood; Jamie Heywood; John Heywood; Stephen Heywood; Ken Thompson; Melinda Marsh Heywood; Peggy Heywood; Wendy Stacy Heywood;