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BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

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The Diagnosis

Factual: Health & Wellbeing

BBC Radio 4 - The Diagnosis

A doctor and their patient come together to tell the story of a single diagnosis.

Janice Wilson has suffered from strange attacks at night for years. She wakes up feeling as though she's being strangled. We hear how a doctor finally found the cause.

For most of her life, Janice Wilson suffered from strange and terrifying attacks at night. She would wake up, suddenly, feeling as though she was being choked or strangled. The next day, there would be blood on her pillow. Sometimes she’d have up to 50 of these attacks a night. It left her terrified and exhausted. For years, doctors put it down to psychological problems due to a trauma in her past. Then she met a doctor who found the astonishing, true cause. 
In “The Diagnosis”, Janice and the doctor who diagnosed her come together in a studio, to tell this remarkable story. 

The programme is presented and produced by Helena Merriman, who was inspired to tell other people’s stories of diagnosis after receiving her own surprise diagnosis a few years ago. 

Editor: Emma Rippon

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

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