Can you be an actor if you can’t remember your lines? Hollwyood actress Demi Moore, once married to Bruce Willis, penned a note on Instagram last week announcing his retirement from acting. Something he has done for 40-odd years. Fronting cult classics like Die Hard, Pulp Fiction and The Fifth Element, Willis, 67, was losing control on his cognitive abilities, a sign of Aphasia. Described as a condition that makes it hard to communicate, it affects a person’s speech, ability to write and understand spoken and written word, and typically follows a stroke or head injury.

It had to take an actor of his stature to start a conversation about the condition that has stayed out of popular discourse. Ironically, it’s anything but rare. According to a study by Australian Aphasia Rehabilitation Pathway, 15 million stroke episodes occur worldwide every year, and up to 38 per cent of survivors end up struggling with Aphasia. The condition is more prevalent than Parkinson’s, ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis), Cerebral Palsy, and Muscular Dystrophy. A research study published by NCBI (National Centre for Biotechnology Information) in 2019 estimated that India has around 20 lakh cases of Aphasia, adding that prolonged speech therapy had proven to be beneficial to patients.