Game Of Thrones Star Kit Harington Is Leading A Learning Disability Week Campaign In His Native U.k. To Honour His Cousin, who has Down Syndrome.
The actor is using his celebrity for good as a spokesperson for Mencap, an organisation dedicated to serving people with learning disabilities - and he's using the organisation's Learning Disability Week to open up about his family's links to the charity.
He says, "My cousin Laurent and I are similar ages and grew up together sharing many things, the same sense of humour and the same passion for film and theatre being chief among them. We had a wonderful loving upbringing in the same family and had a great time growing up, many times under the same roof and (we) became close friends as well as cousins.
"My only major difference with Laurent is that he has Down syndrome.
"My cousin is one of the 1.4 million people in the U.K. with a learning disability. From spending time with Laurent and Mencap and being witness to the work they have done together, I know there is still a long way to go before people with a learning disability are treated as equals in our society.
"From finding it harder to get into work, being victims of hate crime, or receiving poorer quality of healthcare, society has a responsibility to help remove these challenges.
"Many of the obstacles like these that my cousin faces are due to people feeling uncomfortable around disability and afraid of saying or doing the wrong thing and therefore ignoring and turning a blind eye to these issues. Whilst this is in some ways understandable, it is also ridiculous.
"Learning Disability Week is the perfect opportunity to challenge this. We need to give people a far greater awareness and understanding of what learning disability means. That's exactly what Mencap wants to achieve with this year's Learning Disability Week and why I'm asking as many people as possible to get involved."
Learning Disability Week runs until 21 June (15).
An unnerving Western with a sharp female perspective, this film is a series of gruesome...
Will Holloway is faced with not only the most critical event of his career as...
Dark times are coming to the United Kingdom. During a handover to MI5 Counter-terrorism leader...
A classic British memoir gets the full costume drama treatment with this beautifully crafted World...
Vera Brittain is an extraordinarily talented young woman who battles the odds to land herself...
Bigger and even richer than the terrific 2010 hit animation, this sequel is also quite...
Like an ancient Roman version of 2012, this disaster epic is a pure guilty pleasure,...
It's been five years since blacksmith apprentice Hiccup managed to end the battle between dragons...
Blacksmith apprentice Hiccup and his pet dragon Toothless have managed to end the war between...
After being enslaved, Milo is made into a gladiator with indomitable strength. He is forced...
John Gregory is a Spook charged with ridding the country of witches, beasts and malevolent...
Heather Mason is now a teenager and has grown up running away from dark forces...