1 Good evening. Tonight on Sunday ` investigating e-cigarettes. It saved my life. Truthfully. It's smoking, but not as we know it. My mother passed away due to her smoking. So is vaping the answer? We can help so many people. This is a good way of doing it. It's the new era of e-cigarettes. Is nicotine harmful? Nicotine is not what kills you. And Big Tobacco is fighting back. Big Tobacco is not our friend. So, how many miles would you have run along these roads? It'd be thousands of miles. From Greymouth to Boston ` a forgotten sporting hero. Very proud to wear it. It was from me home club, Greymouth. The marathon runner who brought hope to the Coast at a time of tragedy. I think it gave them that deep sense of pride. Their spirits certainly needed a lift. It always flares up in public. (OBJECTS CLATTER) Oh shit! Adam Ladell might have Tourette's syndrome,... Sometimes you'll shout something out, something random, swearing or whatever. You make yourself laugh. ...but give him a microphone, and he's transformed. # When you've been fighting for it all your life, # you've been working every day and night... # And I think that feeling is (HUFFS) the thing that kind of eliminates the Tourette's, to be honest. You have no idea how much you've inspired me. Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2017 Kia ora. I'm John Hudson. E-cigarettes ` could they be the next big thing to help people stop smoking, and could they spell the ultimate death of tobacco for good? With the Royal College of Physicians saying they're likely to be beneficial to UK public health, the government here is now moving to make e-cigarettes with nicotine legal. As smokers gravitate away from cigarettes and towards vaping, as it's called, Big Tobacco is moving in on the lucrative e-cigarette business. Here's Billie Jo Ropiha. Globally last year, 5.6 trillion cigarettes were produced. Over 1 billion people consumed them. 6 million died from smoking-related diseases. Now millions of people have swapped tobacco for e-cigarettes. To date, not one person has been reported as having died from what they call vaping. It saved my life. Truthfully. I think if I hadn't stopped smoking at that time... Yeah. ...and got on to the e-cigarettes, I possibly would not be here. It was over half a century ago that Joan started smoking. She was a product of her time ` caught up in the popularity and lure of cigarettes. 53 years ago, nursing in a London hospital, long, cold corridors with 40 patients lined up, and in a break, what do you do? You run downstairs and have a quick smoke. # For the best combination # of filter and good taste... # Like many of her generation, the power of marketing and the addictive power of nicotine got those like Joan hooked. When I retired, it got worse, of course, because I increased up to smoking a packet a day. I would go without the food to have the cigarettes. So, a year ago, how was your health? Terrible. Terrible. You know, as I said, I could hardly breathe, I couldn't walk up stairs, I couldn't walk on the flat for any length of time. Were you afraid that you were going to die? I` I did. I totally did. Now, Melissa, my main girl... Joan was convinced by a friend to attend an e-cigarette class to help give up tobacco ` a last, desperate attempt. Joan turned up this first night, and, you know, I thought, 'Goodness me. I think I need to ring an ambulance.' That's how bad Joan was. Next week is quit week. I know. You sorta had a bit of a... (CHUCKLING) I know. That programme, run by Rebecca Ruwhiu-Collins, was the night that Joan says saved her life. She could hardly speak. She was finding it very laboured, and she could hardly say words, and I just thought, 'OK, Joan, we're not gonna go any further. 'I think I just need to get her e-cigarette and get started.' That was August the 1st of last year. And so what did that do to you? I` I don't know the mechanics. I don't know the mechanics why these things work. All I know is that they` they work. Or they worked for me. E-cigarettes, or vaping, was introduced to the world around 10 years ago. It was invented by Chinese pharmacist Hon Lik, whose father suffered and died from smoking. The idea was simple ` to give the experience of smoking without the cancer risks. E-cigarettes heat a combination of oils and flavourings to emit a cloud of water vapour. The controversy lies when nicotine is added to the oil, or what is known as e-juice. Is nicotine harmful? It's probably on a par with drinking coffee. Dr Marewa Glover is a professor in smoking cessation. She's been a smoke-free policy adviser to government and an anti-tobacco lobbyist for over 27 years. I should say that in tobacco control, we deliberately demonised nicotine, we deliberately exaggerated the harmfulness of it to scare people off smoking, and now we're paying for that. So you lied, Dr Marewa, and it's coming back at you. (CHUCKLES) Yep. We exaggerated quite a few things about smoking. You know, we wanted to call it a mental illness. We thought that people wouldn't wanna be classified as having a mental illness. So we've tried lots of things to scare people off smoking. Nicotine is not what kills you. It's the tar and the gases and the toxins in the smoke. Not the nicotine. Experts say these past myths that were created about nicotine are now hindering the reputation of e-cigarettes. But in countries where it is legal to buy e-juice with nicotine, they're finding millions of smokers are swapping cigarettes for vaping. What is your position on e-cigarettes? E-cigarettes are much less harmful and much safer than smoking tobacco, so I'd like to see people who currently smoke switch over to less harmful products like e-cigarettes, yeah. When would you like that to happen? Well, as soon as people can. And the products now have been around for 10 years, so I think that we're a little bit behind here in New Zealand, but we have a lot of people moving over to vaping now, and that's great. If you're over the ae of 18, it's legal to buy e-cigarettes and vaping devices. E-juice, which comes in many flavours, are sold in stores. But as the current law stands, it's illegal to sell e-juice with nicotine. Last month, the government proposed to change all that, but changes won't come into effect until at least 18 months. Proponents say it needs to happen now, and e-juice needs to be sold with nicotine where cigarettes are sold. Potentially, this is going to reduce your cost... Smokers who are struggling to afford the increasing cost of cigarettes are desperate. The patches, gum and going cold turkey hasn't worked for these people. What I want you to do is really get yourself in this frame of mind that you're sick of cigarettes. So they've come to VAPE 2 SAVE. Its founder, Rebecca, runs classes to help those hooked on cigarettes give up the habit. Her solution ` try e-cigarettes, and you'll save money along the way. Oh, they're all turned on. OK. All right. Yum. If they're all on, we'll just get them firing. It's yum. It's a new experience for all of us ` vaping clouds of, well, vapour. No smoke, no nicotine, just the experience of an e-cigarette. With e-cigarettes not recognised as a stop-smoking tool, VAPE 2 SAVE receives no government funding. But money isn't what drives Rebecca. My mother passed away from a smoking-related disease, emphysema. And over the years, working in the stop-smoking space, I tried and I tried and I tried with her, and, you know, it got to the point her and I would fight a lot about it. Unfortunately, she passed away due to her smoking. So it's a bit of a personal journey for me, and, you know, I can see that this can make huge impact and really reduce the smoking prevalence in New Zealand. What would your mum say to you now? Would she be proud? EMOTIONALLY: My... I think she'd be proud of me. I just know that, you know,... we can help so many people. This is a good way of doing it. And... I don't want people to experience what many other families, including my family, have experienced. After the break ` Big Tobacco are fighting back in the e-cigarette game. They thought it was a gimmick that wasn't going to threaten their main product. They are illegal because they have tobacco in them. They're demonstrably not the actions of a company that wants to get out of the business of selling cigarettes. . All right, so, this is Tim. 34-year-old male. RTC. Multi-vehicle... VOICES OVERLAP I think about the car crash a lot. I know he caused it and I reacted the best way possible. But it's hard to let it go. SOMBRE MUSIC When I asked what had happened to him, the doctors said he really wore the impact ` any more and things would've been much worse. They said he was lucky ` lucky I wasn't going any faster. Thank you. SOMBRE MUSIC CONTINUES It's OK. MUSIC CONTINUES It's OK. 1 (INTRIGUING MUSIC) The smoking world is smoking hot over e-cigarettes. Hey, wait a minute. What was that? Bet I'm freaking y'all out right now, huh? But wait a minute` What`? Am I gonna get arrested by the PC police? In just the UK alone, smokers have turned to vaping in their droves. While there's still a lot of debate around e-cigarettes, Public Health England calls them... While the Royal College of Physicians has said e-cigarettes are... The relative risk compared to smoking is much, much smaller. I mean, it's certainly no more than 5%. Dr Murray Winiata is a Clinical Director in South Auckland. He hit the headlines for being a doctor who openly vapes. Smoking's a hidden habit. Doctors don't admit to smoking. It was a bit of a difficult decision. I really sort of wrangled with 'how would my peers perceive this?' So I actually sort of felt it's almost a moral imperative that I stand up and say, 'Hey, look, I'm doing this thing, and it's good.' Do you think that the success of e-cigarettes is because it still emulates the experience of a smoke, but doesn't have the bad side effects? Yeah, I think that's certainly a big part of the appeal for smokers. This explains why smokers are just moving en masse to this new technology. Also moving on, or playing catch-up, is Big Tobacco. This is what one of the tobacco giants has spent billions of dollars developing. The iQOS device and associated HeatSticks are the brain child of Philip Morris International, famous for the Marlboro brand. While it may look like an e-cigarette on the outside, inside it still uses tobacco, which heats rather than burns. Still made from tobacco, so though it's a heat-not-burn product, it's still tobacco. When you look at their actual actions over the last few years, they're demonstrably not the actions of a company that wants to get out of the business of selling cigarettes. The slick looking iQOS was unveiled to the world in a series of glitzy launches. In December of last year, it was New Zealand's turn. The company claims it's part of their smoke-free vision. And Maori Party co-leader Marama Fox is welcoming of that vision. That is a cigarette company saying that they're gonna stop making cigarettes, because they believe that the future is actually moving away from harm and going to a healthier model. Of course they wanna have a monopoly on it. Of course they do. They've got an agenda. No, we're not stupid. But, you know, it's still a huge, huge acknowledgement. Do you believe them, though? It's on their website. They can't be saying that out in the public. But what Philip Morris can't say yet is whether their new product is safe. In a statement to Sunday, General Manager Jason Erickson said... Most people have huge concerns around a product being brought to the market by tobacco. If you look at it, almost all of the evidence to date is Phillip Morris' own in-house evidence, and I think most people, and certainly most doctors, you know, wouldn't be prepared to accept that on face value at all. To find out whether PMI's tobacco vape really is less harmful than smoking, an Auckland-based research company was to conduct an independent human study. But the only groups targeted by the study were to be Pasifika and Maori, and Philip Morris was approaching people to take part. I was approached sort of by an intermediary to see if I wanted to be involved in that study, and I think at that stage they were prospectively looking at doing a study with Maori in Northland. And so they were quite keen to have an e-cigarette user, a sort of public e-cigarette user, who was a doctor and Maori. But I was probably fairly leery in the meeting that I'd had, and so I wasn't approached even to be part of that study. Per capita, Maori and Pasifika are the biggest consumers of tobacco in New Zealand. Figures show conventional anti-smoking campaigns and price hikes failed to get them to quit, and that's the reason given why the study targeted those groups. Now, for any trial to go ahead in New Zealand, it must get approval from an ethics committee. And for approval, it must show that the trial is ethically and scientifically sound. And in February of this year, the ethics committee met to consider the iQOS study. Associate Minister for Health Nicky Wagner. So what it says ` (READS) 'The ethics committee declined the application on ethical grounds 'that the study only included Maori and Pasifika people 'and that the legality of the product was in question. 'And that the committee determined it was for the benefit of the manufacturer/sponsor, 'and not an investigator-led study as indicated in the application.' So pretty damning. Not surprisingly, the study was denied. Adding to their woes, just this week, the Ministry of Health charged Philip Morris with illegally importing the very tobacco that powers the iQOS device. For its part, Philip Morris states the company is confident the iQOS and HeatSticks fully comply with all smoke-free legislation. It's difficult to know what Philip Morris are going to do. Basically, I think tobacco is a product of the past. I would like to see people looking to the future, and it may be in other countries there's capacity for it, but I don't think New Zealand is really the place for them. We'll keep an eye on developments. Later ` the 18-year-old singer who isn't letting Tourette's hold him back. But up next ` 50 years ago, Dave McKenzie ran to victory in the Boston Marathon. He became a national hero and one of Greymouth's most famous sons. So is this the actual singlet you wore? Yeah, that's the actual singlet. Did people in Boston have any idea where Greymouth was? No. They honestly thought it was from Greece, with a G. (BOTH CHUCKLE) 1 Welcome back. It's one of our great, forgotten sports stories, forged out of tragedy. Half a century ago, a shy young West Coaster, known as wee ginger, stood on top of the running world when his hometown needed it the most. Here's Mark Crysell with the story of Dave McKenzie. (UPBEAT MUSIC) The Boston Marathon ` America's toughest, most prestigious running race. Only the best even get to start. And centre stage, a very special guest ` a Kiwi, a West Coaster ` Dave McKenzie. You did pretty well. Yeah. Why is he in Boston? Well, 50 years ago, Dave McKenzie overcame a huge tragedy that still haunts the West Coast today to win this race. You can acknowledge that you did pretty well? Oh, fair enough, yeah. Quite possibly the most famous Kiwi athlete you've never heard of, but you'd never hear it from him. Was there any stage where you felt elation? Yeah, there's always elation after you win. Punch the air? No, none of that, no. They don't breed skites in Runanga. A West Coast town built by coal miners, working-class proud of their sporting heroes ` rugby league players and Dave McKenzie. Yeah, I was just proud of being a Coaster all me life. He talks it and he walks it. Still lives on street he grew up on. Yeah, that's the house I was born in there, in 34, and my mother carried me down the road and to 49, and we spent most of about 30 years in 49, and then I ended up buying the house at 42. And at the end of Inverness St is a coal mine. Mining was` it's the life blood of the community. And mining is in the McKenzies' blood. My father was a coal miner, brother Hector, of course. Four McKenzie boys and a daughter were raised on this street, and they all loved their sport. ARCHIVE: Mr McKenzie, what age did Dave start running? Well, he decided at 14 that he would like to be a marathon runner. So Dave joined the Greymouth Harrier and Athletic Club. I think he's one of our truly great marathon runners, and he was a very unique character. Ivan Agnew, sports journalist, knew the family and wrote about Dave when they both worked on the Greymouth Evening Star newspaper in the 1960s. He's a great little bloke, but (LAUGHS) he` Not a great talker? Oh, no, he's definitely not a great talker. Dave was competitive on the grass as a harrier, but on the road, he was a champion. He'd be bent over like a jackknife for the first 5 or 6 miles, and then he would come alive. And that was so true of Dave. You know, he was magic. It was almost a magical thing to see. Once he warmed up, there was a real bound, his feet come high off the ground. You know, and he had a really good stride and lovely rhythm, and all of a sudden, he was a transformed athlete. He never had a trainer. Just ran... and ran. Every mile meticulously jotted down in his training diary. 26 on the Saturday. Sunday, 18. Monday, 15. 22 on the Tuesday. 11` 17 miles on the on the Thursday, and 18 on the Friday. 9 miles ` that's 15km ` to and from work in Greymouth every day. Speed work during lunch. But the real training grounds were the West Coast's rugged roads and steep hills. So how many miles would you have run along these roads? Oh, it'd be thousands of miles. Cos probably 65% of it would've been out along here. You'd be on this road most of the time. There's a bit more traffic today. Oh, a lot more traffic. I tell you what, the sandflies are pretty thick at the moment too. (LAUGHS) We are on the West Coast, mate. (LAUGHS) Yeah. This was number eight-wired New Zealand. Running shoes too hard? A new pair of Nikes, Adidas? Yeah, nah. You did it yourself. Got a pair of these old running shoes that I'd used before, and I got a pair of jandals and took them into the shoemaker, and he's ripped the sandal off and put an ordinary jandal sole on there, and put the other soles on top, and it made them very soft. You don't get much more Kiwi than that, Dave, do you? Jandals. Jandals, yeah. In 1966, he travelled north to Hamilton and won the New Zealand Marathon Champs. Dave McKenzie, unknown and uncoached, won by a whopping 10 minutes. Greymouth threw a party. They had the bagpipes at the railway station, and they put me on their shoulders and went down to the local pub. (CHUCKLES) The win got Dave invited to run in the world's oldest marathon in Boston. But three months before the big race, disaster on the West Coast. A huge explosion ripped through Greymouth's Strongman Coal Mine. Can you tell us about Hector? What happened? Uh, yeah, he was caught up in the Strongman Mine disaster in '67. 19 miners died at Strongman. Dave's brother Hector was one of them. Yeah, it was very, very hard. Did you use it to drive you forward, in a way, with your running? No. I think we might finish that one. OK. I don't want that much to do with the Strongman Minings. OK. (SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY) you see. Yeah. OK. One of me mates were killed in there too, you see ` running mates. The whole West Coast was devastated by the Strongman Mine disaster. And they came together in Greymouth on a freezing cold, rainy day to bury the dead in a mass grave. The strangest thing is when you were walking down there, even though it was raining, you couldn't feel anything. Ivan Agnew, along with Dave, was one of Hector's pall-bearers. I was very privileged to be asked. I really did feel honoured. Somehow, Dave McKenzie picked himself and got on the plane to Boston. A broken West Coast had passed the hat around to raise money for the trip. Oh, everyone was sorta down in the dumps before I left, you know, you understand. So devastating for everyone. He'd know that if he went to Boston and did well, it would mean a hell of a lot to the Coasters. I think he'd be aware of that. He doesn't` As I say, he doesn't talk a lot, but he` he thinks a lot. He'd never been out of New Zealand before. That was the first time, yep. By the time he got to Boston, Dave McKenzie was just one more face in the biggest race in the world. And the only one wearing a singlet with a G on it. So is this the actual singlet that you wore? Yep, that's the actual singlet. With the G. G. Very proud to wear it. It was from me home club, Greymouth, and it's very, very special. Did people in Boston have any idea where Greymouth was? No. Well, they honestly thought it was from Greece, with a G. (BOTH CHUCKLE) The Japanese were the favourites. They'd dominated the Boston Marathon for the past two years. They turned up and very polite and bowed a lot and, you know, smiled. But they were held in awe by the Americans, and with good reason. They were the supermen of the Boston Marathon, no doubt. It may've been 50 years ago, but Dave remembers that bitterly cold Boston race day as if it were yesterday. I think it was about 2 or 3 degrees, and there was snow on the ground. In the morning, it was very white all over. You made sure that you warmed up. And in them days, you used to cover yourself with olive oil. It was a packed field, around 700 runners... and one dog. Yeah, he come for a wee while there, a couple of hundred metres or so. Where did he get in the race? Oh, he might have come a close second. By midway, the leaders had sorted themselves out. The Japanese runners suddenly realised the little guy with the ginger hair was impossible to shake. One would take off and come back again, and then another one would be back again. Another one would take off and come back. He was very wily. He'd be watching. And if he spotted any weakness, he'd know when to hit, and he'd hit hard. Dave McKenzie hit on what they call Heartbreak Hill. That's when I thought, 'Oh, I'll go for broke.' And that's when I made for a break. Thousands of miles on those West Coast roads paid off. They never caught him. He not only won ` he won in record time. (CHEERING, APPLAUSE) The American public went nuts over Dave. They couldn't get enough of him. It was just a big day for them. About 200,000 watch the event, and that was in the rain as well. The hoopla and hullabaloo hadn't died down by the time he got home. Winning the race was the easy part; talking about it was much tougher. Dave, what has this victory done for you personally? Just another race, more or less, to me, I think. It's just` Dunno, really. (CHUCKLES) Just kinda went to Boston and run the biggest race in the world outside the Olympics. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. Yeah, everything went spot on that day. You get the sense it meant more to Dave than he lets on. And after Strongman, it meant everything to the West Coast. I think it gave them that deep sense of pride. I think it lifted people. They needed a lift. And their spirits certainly needed a lift. It was a horrendous time for what they'd been through. They've never forgotten him in Boston. He was the Grand Marshal at this year's marathon. But on the Coast, he's a legend. Running was a great thing for Dave. He got into his own world, I think, and he set his own tempo. And it just brought him out of himself in many ways, you know. It was beautiful to watch. Real expression. And he still lives on Inverness St with wife Adele. Anything you do for your community, and I think when people are down and out, it's good to be able to do something back for the community. Good to be able to pick them up again, eh? Pick them up, yes. Yeah. Good on you, Dave. You did bloody well. Yeah, thanks. Good on ya. (BOTH CHUCKLE) Good on ya. Dave later ran for New Zealand at two Olympics, and he was still running for his beloved Greymouth Harriers until his mid-50s. Up next ` singer Adam Ladell meets his Tourette's hero. (CHEERING) I'm Touretteshero. Biscuit. She had such a good attitude about it, and I thought, you know, 'That's exactly the attitude I wanna have with it.' My name's Jess. Biscuit. I also have Tourette's syndrome. Hey, what's that? Biscuit. It's a neurological condition... (LAUGHTER) Biscuit. Biscuit. ...that means I make movements and noises. Thank you so much for coming to the show. Biscuit. Aww. Biscuit. Welcome back. For Tourette's sufferer Adam Ladell, sitting still for 10 seconds without twitching or speaking is a huge challenge. But give him a microphone and the chance to sing, and the 18-year-old's Tourette's syndrome instantly disappears. In fact, he sings so well, Adam Ladell was last year's runner-up on the TV show The Voice. Just a warning ` this item contains strong language. Here's Rahni Sadler. (LAUGHTER) (SNORTS) Oh! Oh shit. After you, little bro. Fat, ugly... elephant! Oh shit! (WHISTLES) Turkey! (YELLS INDISTINCTLY) She's got a beard! Watch out. We're contagious. (LAUGHTER) Meet Adam, James and Cameron. I love you, Adam! Love you, James! They've been brought together by a special bond. She's hot. (YELLS INDISTINCTLY, WHISTLES) A bond that at times raises eyebrows. Argh! (LAUGHS) Rhinos! James! (LAUGHS) That bond is Tourette's syndrome. It always flares up in public. Like, you'll be sitting at home, it won't happen a lot. Sometimes you'll shout something out, you know, something random, swearing or whatever. You make yourself laugh. (BLEEP). (BLEEP). Adam's Tourette's is a constant companion. (BLEEP). (BLEEP). (OBJECTS CLATTER) Shit. Adam! His vocal and physical tics are completely involuntary. (BLEEP). But watch this. # Oh-oh. # When you've been fighting for it all your life, # you've been working every day and night, # that's when a superhero learns to fly... # And action! Stick your finger in it. Do you have any theories on why music seems to make Tourette's go away? You lose focus of absolutely everything around you. you know, the anxiety goes down. You know, what you're having for dinner, you forget about that. You're just thinking about the song, and you get this feeling, and I think that feeling it (HUFFS) the thing that kind of eliminates the Tourette's, to be honest. So you're looking forward to tonight? Yeah. Today Adam Ladell is a happy teenager with a bright future. After his diagnosis at 13, he thought his life had been ruined. Until this... So this is the moment your life changed. Yeah, pretty much. The first time I'd ever seen Tourette's before, so... (LAUGHS) Adam saw our Sunday Night story about Jess Thom, also known as Touretteshero. I'm Touretteshero. Biscuit. I am the world's first. Biscuit. She's most famous for one of her most persistent tics. Biscuit. Biscuit. Ha! Ha! Biscuit. Biscuit. Biscuit. Biscuit. Beans. Biscuit, biscuit, biscuit, biscuit, biscuit. (LAUGHS) Biscuits. (CHUCKLES) She had such a good attitude about it, and I thought, you know, that's exactly the kind of attitude I wanna have with it, you know. I don't wanna be upset about it. I wanna see that you can use it to make other people's lives better. Hey! Hello. Biscuit. So when Jess came to Australia to perform her stage show, Adam had to be there. What's your name? I'm Cameron. Not only will Adam get to meet his hero,... Oh, James. James. Nice. (CHUCKLES) ...but he also met James Sayers and Cameron Schubert. And an instant and loud brotherhood was formed. Give them a run for their money. Just random. Wa-hoo. (CHATTERS INDISTINCTLY) Please welcome to the stage Jess Thom! (CHEERING) They're in for quite a show. Each person's Tourette's sets off the others. Hello! Hey, what's that? Biscuit. Hello. Biscuit. My name's Jess. Biscuit. I'm an artist, writer ` biscuit ` and part-time superhero. Biscuit. Biscuit. Wa-hoo. I also have Tourette's syndrome. Hey, what's that? Biscuit. It's a neurological condition... (LAUGHTER) Biscuit. (LAUGHS) Biscuit. Biscuit. Biscuit. ...that means I make movements and noises I can't control called tics. Biscuit. You probably noticed already, but I say 'biscuit' quite a lot. (SNORTS, INHALES SHARPLY) Jess' stage show, Backstage in Biscuit Land, is a glimpse into the life of someone with Tourette's. Having Tourette's gives me a very wiggly body, biscuit, that's constantly on the move. Biscuit. My most frequent tic involves punching my chest. Biscuit. It's happening now and now and now. (CHUCKLING) Biscuit. The boys are rapt. ENGLISH ACCENT: She's pretty fit. It's not every day they get to see a performer with Tourette's. Benedict Cumberbatch. Biscuit. Cumberbatch. (BLEEP). Oh! (LAUGHTER) Or be in an audience where their spontaneous vocal and physical tics are cause for celebration, not shame. (SNORTS) (LAUGHTER) How do you explain to people why these words come out of your mouth involuntarily? Biscuit. Well, Tourette's is a neurological condition, um, biscuit, and, biscuit, it's a complex condition, biscuit, and exactly why, biscuit, um, tics happen is still being investigated and still being, uh` you know, more is being found out about that all the time. Biscuit. But, biscuit, what I can say is that I definitely haven't, biscuit, had any traumatic experiences with biscuits. Uh, biscuit, I don't think about biscuits ` biscuit ` nearly as much as I talk about them. And I'm not hungry. Biscuit. (CHUCKLES) My thoughts are totally biscuit-free. Biscuit. And they're just an automatic interruption into my` biscuit, into my speech. Uh, biscuit, cats, hello, beans. We're out of time. (GRUNTING) No! Biscuit. I hope you've enjoyed being in Biscuit Land. Shit! (APPLAUSE) For Adam, the best part of the show was yet to come. Thank you so much for coming to the show. Biscuit. Aww! Biscuit. Thank you. You have no idea how much you inspire me. You know, if it wasn't for you` I used to look at Tourette's in such a dark` I went through a dark time, and, do you know, it was you that kind of, you know` Biscuit. More positive light to it and allow me to inspire others. That means so much to me. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. That means loads to me. # A spider web... # Last year, Adam touched hearts across the country, finishing runner-up in The Voice. It's an incredible achievement, given what Tourette's had almost taken from him. I was at the point where I did try and take my life at one point, because, you know, it was so hard to deal with other people, the negative comments that kept getting thrown your way, and you` There's a point where you just think, 'This is it,' you know. How old were you then? That was 14. 13, 14. So, you know, just as you hit the teenage years. I was new to the country as well, trying to make friends, and all of a sudden, you know, it just all kind of went downhill. How old were you when you experienced what you now know to be a tic? Well, I mean, obviously it started off with quite minor things, you know, throat-clearing, arm-stretching. (HUFFS) And then one day, it was literally overnight ` woke up the next day, and all of a sudden, my head started jerking, and I was like, you know, what's going on here? I started to yell out 'drop' all the time. I was going, 'Drop! Drop, drop!' like, 24-7. Two or three months later, I progressed into swearing, and it was a very fast transition, so very scary. (CHUCKLES) Only Cam and I understand metal. Tourette's is a mysterious syndrome, no exact cause or cure, affecting one in 100 Australians. I think, as a parent, all we wanted to do was stop it. And, um, went through a stage where we would` I'd push the neurologist to give him more and more drugs, and that was probably the worst thing to do, because Adam, at his age, was now not Adam, because the side effects were affecting him. And Adam actually came to me and said to me one day, 'Dad, if I have to be on these drugs, I'd rather not... be.' It took the Tourette's away, so I went without Tourette's for a while, but I was extremely tired and depressed at the same time, so it was a terrible combination. If you could take it away from him, you would. Definitely. Definitely. Of course I would. After the break ` Adam's new mates share their experiences of living with Tourette's. I've got a tic. It's called a paralysis tic. I fall to the floor, and I can't move my body for a couple of minutes. Oh shit. (BLEEP). He's paralysed. Ooh. Is that`? Is that literally one of them? Shit! Yeah. What did you guys do when Cameron went down? We should join him... Scratch your arsehole. ...so he doesn't feel alone. So I dropped my bag. I lied next to him on the right, and Adam laid next to him on the left. Sharing is caring! (LAUGHS) (LAUGHS) (YELLS INDISTINCTLY) (GRUNTS) Zebras! Elephants! The youngest of the trio is 11-year-old Cameron, who just wants to be a normal kid. I'm not gonna let my Tourette's stop me from` from having a happy life. And what do you wanna be when you grow up? An astrophysicist. But his Tourette's can make the classroom challenging. What does it feel like? You know how you need to sneeze and you can't stop it? If you get a sneeze, um, feel it coming on, and then you just can't` you just try and stop` you can't... (GRUNTS, WHISTLES) Like, I have head shakes and I, like, do this weird thing with my eyes, and, like, I click. I have a tic where I say names of animals and stuff. Bunny rabbit! Turkey! Zebras! And sometimes I just say some things that I hear, see or come to my head. Pig! For everyone who just thinks Tourette's is funny, is it just funny? Bits of it. If it's not just funny, what are the other bits? Stressful. I've got a tic that's called a paralysis tic. I fall to the floor. And I can't move my body for a couple of minutes. For a little boy, it's a cause of discomfort and embarrassment. Ooh! Oh shit. (BLEEP). He's paralysed. Is that literally one of them? Shit! Yeah. Is it? Just the hands and the feet? But not today. What did you guys do when Cameron went down? We should join him... Scratch your arsehole. ...so he doesn't feel alone. So I dropped my bag. (LAUGHTER) Dropped my phone. I lied next to him on the right and Adam laid next to him on the left. Sharing is caring! (LAUGHS) All three of us lied in the middle of Fed Square for about 10 minutes. Are you still paralysed? Yeah! Bloody hell! It was so good, cos they laid down with me, trying to get the feeling of what it would be like to have it, and it was just really nice. Did it make you feel less alone? Yeah. (PLAYS GUITAR) Like Adam, music also quietens Cameron's Tourette's. You're really good at that. Yeah, I love guitar. I play guitar, and I'm hoping to keep playing that and... maybe do gigs when I'm older. (METAL MUSIC PLAYS) Music is also a welcome distraction for the third member of this Tourette's trio. James Sayers is a ball of energy. (CLANK!) (GRUNTS GUTTURALLY) He's literally bouncing off the walls. (GROANS) They tried me on medications, and it just turns you into a zombie. And I need to move, so that was not an option, so for me, what I tell people, the best` the best, I guess, natural cure is, um, yeah, being in a good head space. (METAL MUSIC PLAYS) So when I'm on the drums, it's that feeling of freedom. I'm doing what I love, and in that moment,... (WAILS) ...I'm making music, like, I feel good, and then Tourette's can just, like, sit back and watch me play, I guess. Those that mind don't matter, and those that matter don't mind. And every time I think of that, it's so easy just not to worry about if someone's bullying me or if someone looks, you know, disgusted, or if someone's having a crack ` it's just straight away, I just don't need to worry about them. I got, like, the robot. Like, if you have a problem with it, it just saves me having to make conversation with you. Just leave me be, then. I don't care. I have machine guns in my butt! You're not meant to put us together. We should be separate. And the conversations between James, Adam and Cameron are unique. My head got run over by a car. It did not, you liar! Yeah, it didn't. Just like their friendship. I just really hope` (YELLS INDISTINCTLY) (LAUGHS) I just really hope us three can keep in touch for, like, as long as we live. I'm gonna miss you guys. Oh, bro! Bro! CHUCKLES: Oh! And next month, TVNZ2 is screening a documentary, Camp Twitch, which focuses on six New Zealanders with Tourette's syndrome as they participate in a week-long Tourette's camp in Rotorua. Coming up on Sunday ` the cola connecting Kiwis to Sierra Leone, and the businessman making a difference in a village far away. There's no electricity there. They get up in the morning when the sun comes up, and they go to bed when it gets dark. But they look after each other. I like going there. (CHUCKLES) I like seeing these people. A Kiwi man's love affair with the people of Sierra Leone. We say, 'He who brings cola brings peace.' He who brings cola brings peace. It's the peace nut. ALL: Yes. Fantastic. And the key ingredient behind his internationally successful company. We couldn't really call it Karma Cola unless we used the real thing and it was benefiting someone that was growing it. Changing their lives through fair trade. So we sent them a box of 15 bottles, and they were` you know, they were amused. Then, six months after that, we sent them a cheque. And that's when they started taking things slightly more seriously. (LAUGHS) This is Mr Simon. Providing funds for education... (CHILDREN SING) Girls tend to get the raw deal. ...and helping a former child soldier to make a difference. She's a kid that suffered from the hardship of a 10-year war and now wants to try and even the score (CHUCKLES) by becoming a lawyer. And that's our show for tonight. Join us on Facebook and Twitter. Thanks for watching. Nga mihi nui, hei kona.