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Matthew and Michael Clark, The Benjamin Buttons in Real Life: They Are Aging Backwards


The elixir of life, -well, I don’t suppose you believe in such a thing, also known as elixir of immortality and sometimes equated with the philosopher's stone, according to Wiki, is a legendary/mythical potion, or drink, that grants the drinker eternal life and/or eternal youth. You might have watched about it somewhere, or you might have read it on a book. Many practitioners of alchemy pursued it. The elixir of life was also said to be able to create life. It is related to the myths of Thoth, and Hermes Trismegistus, all of whom in various tales are said to have drunk "the white drops" (liquid gold) and thus achieved immortality. It is mentioned in one of the Nag Hammadi texts.

The elixir of life, as the text revealed, will give you the ability not to age, not even a bit. Immortality as what those philosophers say. But for brothers Matthew and Michael Clark, they’re not immortal, they are just aging backwards.

Tony and Christine Clark are raising two rambunctious 7-year-old boys, it’s too obvious just by the looks of their home. Model train tracks and Monopoly pieces are scattered on tables and cartoons flicker on the TV set.

But the Clarks' two sons are grown men who share only the same interests and emotional fluctuations of little boys. Like the character portrayed by Brad Pitt in the 2008 film "The Curious Case of Benjamin Buttons," Matthew, 39, and Michael, 42, are aging backwards. Yes, but don’t throw me those questions yet! Well, just read on...

Diagnosed with a terminal form of leukodystrophy, one of a group of extremely rare genetic disorders that attack the Myelin, or white matter, in the nervous system, spinal cord, and brain. In the Clarks' case, the condition has not only eroded their physical capacities, but their emotional and mental states as well.

Both brothers were holding down jobs and growing their families just only six years ago. Today, they spend their days in the care of their parents, both in their sixties, playing with Mr. Potato Head, fighting over Monopoly, and in rare lucid moments, struggling to understand why their lives have changed so dramatically.

Clark brothers were living independent lives before they were diagnosed. Michael served in the Royal Air Force and later became a cabinet maker. Matthew worked in a factory and was raising a teenage daughter. Tony and Christine, meanwhile, had retired and moved from the UK to Spain. Then both of their sons fell off the radar in 2007. They stopped returning their parents' calls and texts, and as the Clark brothers' conditions developed, their lives fell apart.

Michael surfaced in a soup kitchen, and was referred to medical experts by social workers. After an MRI scan, he was diagnosed with the incurable degenerative disorder. Soon after Matthew received the same news. In the U.S. alone, according to Dr. William Kintner, President of the United Leukodystrophy Foundation, about 1 in 40,000 children are born with a form of the neurodegenerative disease. The Clark brothers are unlikely to be cured, while some forms of the disorder are potentially treatable if discovered in the earliest stages and not all cause an emotional regression. "It's very difficult to do anything once progression has occurred," according to Dr. Kintner.

As of April, when the Clarks were first written about in the British press, their mental age was 10.
"We will be out walking and things which might interest a toddler interest them, the other day we were walking home when Michael saw a balloon and pointed it out to us," father Tony Clark, told The Telegraph last spring.

Today, the brothers are even younger mentally.

"Just like small children, they wake up a lot during the night," mom Christine said in an interview published in The Independent this week. "I was up seven times with them last night."

After learning of their diagnoses, Tony and Christine returned to the UK and moved in with their sons. Their daily struggles as a family have been chronicled in a British documentary, "The Curious Case of the Clark Brothers," airing Monday in the UK.

Earlier this year, Matthew became a grandfather, when his daughter had a son. But the news for the family was bittersweet, as the Clark brothers' mental age continued to creep backwards.

"There's no return to them being cute little boys," said Christine, who regularly manages their tantrums and fights over Monopoly. "They're big strong men—and that presents a quite different set of problems."
More recently, even their physical strength began deteriorating.

"A few weeks ago, they could still manage with a knife and fork, but now that's getting too difficult for them—they get the food onto their forks, but somehow it all falls off before it reaches their mouths," she said.
Now walking is the next hurdle; Matthew is already confined to a wheelchair.



"The likelihood that they're on a terminal course is fairly certain, but who knows?" says Dr. Kintner, who is familiar with the Clark case but didn't meet the brothers. "If they were citizens of U.S., we'd try to get them to the National Institute of Health for diagnostic work, but in the UK the system is different. There is no comparable organization with genetic diseases, so it's a little more difficult there."

Dr. Kintner estimates there are several million cases of one of the estimated 40 types of leukodystrophies in the U.S., but an exact number is hard to pinpoint. The different forms of the disorder are still being identified and tests for each known type are still being developed. "It's going to take a long time," says Dr. Kintner. "I hope in my lifetime I see a cure for some of them."

Yes, I do hear you, though it is a fascinating fact, yet, they are also people. Like most children, Clark brothers deserves care and understanding, they’re just kids after all. We should hope and pray that one day, experts and doctors will find a cure for them...

Cheerio!

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