A Boy Called Alex

...was a documentry about a guy called Alex who is so incredibly talented and a fantastic musician. He also has CF. He attended Eton and the programme followed him as he prepared to conduct a performance of Bach's epic choral work, the Magnificat.

Watching him and the documentry was kind of weird as it's a bit like watching yourself in so many ways. He reminds me a lot of myself in the years leading up to my transplant, except for the whole musically talented bit that is! Everything from what he was saying about his own health to how he in a sense wanted to 'put aside his illness' was so familiar.

When the show began I thought that it was going to be a bit 'dramatic' and that he wasn't actually as sick as he was going to be portrayed. You know the way in the media CF is a 'You Could Die Tomorrow' sort of thing and then the subject is actually incredibly well! But it was fairly accurate I felt. Alex a week(?) before the concert ended up in ICU fighting an infection. I always feel that the word 'inspirational' is used too causally, but this guy would be someone who would make my very short list

And as well he came across rather modest too. I mean with CF he could easily exploit that and become a 'musical cf-er' or even a 'professional cf-er' (as in he tours everywhere as the boy with CF who is a prodigy) but he doesn't. Not at all.

Below are two videos, the first is the add for the show. The second is of when Alex got cosy with Richard & Judy and just chatted to them about the documentry. They even seemed taken with his charm! For anyone who cares, he mentions his lung function is about 50% which his mother and he somewhat laughs at. I know in the programme at highest it was 35% so I'm guessing it's about that.

If you missed it and have access to More4 I believe it will be repeated on Wednesday night.