Tourette's Action
Three source-linked national articles | Three-month campaign
For a charity working to challenge misunderstanding, publicity is not just about being seen. It is about giving people a chance to describe their own experiences, reaching readers who may never have thought seriously about the issue, and making the subject more difficult to dismiss.
That was the purpose behind a three-month PR campaign supporting Tourette's Action's June awareness activity. Working with campaign collaborator Hannah Brice, our team developed and pitched personal stories from people living with Tourette syndrome. Three independently recorded national articles are linked in the campaign archive, including coverage in Metro, Mirror Online and iNews.
The resulting stories explored three very different parts of life with Tourette's: being misunderstood or dismissed, navigating the path to diagnosis, and the reality of dating when other people make assumptions about a neurological condition. They were human-interest journalism rather than an exercise in promoting a charity's services.
For a charity, that is a meaningful result. The stories put lived experiences in front of broad audiences, while giving the awareness campaign an opportunity to discuss the realities behind a condition often reduced to stereotypes.
The charity and the awareness challenge
Tourette's Action is a UK charity that works to improve understanding of Tourette syndrome and support people affected by it. Tourette syndrome is a neurological condition involving involuntary movements and sounds known as tics. The precise form and impact of tics varies widely, and the experiences of people living with the condition cannot be reduced to a single familiar media image.
When the public hears about Tourette syndrome, discussion can focus disproportionately on sensational examples or the mistaken idea that tics are deliberate. That can obscure everyday situations that matter to individuals and families: how other people respond at school and work, how long it can take someone to feel understood, and whether they are taken seriously when explaining what they experience.
The June awareness period provided a timely reason for editors to explore those issues. It also created an important responsibility for the campaign team: the people whose stories made the media pitch possible had to remain more than illustrations for an awareness message.
The objective: earn attention without losing the human story
The brief was to support awareness, encourage public understanding and secure national coverage that conveyed what it can really be like to live with Tourette syndrome.
That is different from a campaign whose primary aim is to sell a product, launch a business or place an executive's comments in the news. For charity and cause-related PR, an article needs to serve readers and respect the individuals at its centre. A national story that helps someone explain the effects of misunderstanding can be valuable even if it contains no donation request or website link.
We therefore concentrated on the experiences behind the campaign. The aim was to find genuine, reportable stories that editors could develop into meaningful articles, rather than trying to make the same charity statement appear repeatedly across publications.
The approach: people first, awareness message second
Finding different facets of the same cause
Tourette syndrome can affect people's relationships with healthcare, education, employers, partners and strangers. Rather than reducing that range to one generic press release, the campaign used distinct individuals' experiences to explore different reader questions.
One story looked at a person whose tics had been treated as attention-seeking. Another explored the everyday consequences of people doubting someone's description of Tourette's. A third raised a more intimate subject: how a person's experience of Tourette syndrome might shape their approach to dating and relationships.
These stories complemented one another without becoming interchangeable. They created several editorial routes into the campaign, each grounded in a particular individual's perspective.
Preparing real people for a national audience
Hannah's feedback about the collaboration specifically describes the work of taking the brief, interviewing case-study contributors, drafting material and liaising with journalists. That is significant because awareness campaigns involving personal health experiences require more careful handling than simply distributing a standard announcement.
Interviews help establish which aspects of a story people feel able to share and what the facts can support. Drafting helps organise those details into an accurate, readable narrative. Liaison with a journalist allows the publisher to follow up and develop its reporting, while ensuring the person behind the story is not forgotten once the pitch is sent.
The campaign record does not document every interview question, approval exchange or editorial decision, so we do not claim a particular consent process or promise that contributors controlled the finished articles. The source-backed point is that interviewing contributors and preparing their real-life stories formed an explicit part of the work.
Matching each experience to a relevant editorial angle
The three recorded examples show why editorial fit mattered.
A story about misunderstanding a tic works as a narrative about diagnosis and public assumptions. An article about people thinking someone is pretending offers a direct way to challenge stereotypes. A story about dating creates a different kind of opening, prompting readers to consider relationships, confidence and other people's reactions.
The same cause was therefore relevant to news and lifestyle publications for different reasons. That gave the awareness activity a broader set of readers to reach than one repeated institutional message.
The media coverage: three stories, three different conversations
Mirror Online: when symptoms are mistaken for attention-seeking
Mirror Online published a real-life story in June 2023 under the headline 'Doctors said my tic was attention-seeking - but then I had my eureka moment'. The recorded article, reported by Nia Dalton, centred on the experience of a person whose symptoms were misunderstood.
The story offered readers a direct example of how assumptions about someone's tics can interfere with their sense of being taken seriously. Rather than explaining Tourette syndrome entirely through third-person claims, it drew attention to an individual's experience.
Metro: the social cost of not being believed
In 'People say I'm lying for attention: What it's like living with Tourette's', Metro journalist Alice Giddings explored the way people living with Tourette's can face suspicion, misunderstanding and dismissive reactions.
This angle was particularly useful for an awareness campaign because the issue is not only what tics look or sound like. The responses of other people can also shape everyday life. The published feature provided a relatable account rather than an abstract warning against stigma.
iNews: talking about Tourette syndrome and dating
The campaign's third linked archive record concerns a personal story about dating and Tourette syndrome. The originally recorded print item has now been reconciled to an iNews online feature, at the exact original publisher URL supplied during the current website review.
The subject offered another angle on public understanding. Dating and relationships can involve questions about confidence, when to explain a health condition, and what a prospective partner may or may not understand. This is relevant to a much broader readership than people already seeking information about Tourette syndrome.
What the campaign achieved
The three-month campaign has three distinct, source-linked national article records. These are different stories in Mirror Online, Metro and iNews, rather than a series of republications of the same feature.
All three are connected to the 2023 June awareness activity recorded in Published Press. The available archive is a record of linked published material, not a complete independent measurement of campaign reach, donations, website traffic or changes in public opinion.
There is no source-backed basis to claim a particular number of impressions, fundraising enquiries, awareness survey responses, backlinks or conversions. The useful evidence is that the campaign was translated into national editorial stories that addressed genuine misconceptions in different ways.
For Tourette's Action, the combination mattered: the articles were not solely about the organisation. They centred on people whose experiences could help readers understand the condition beyond its stereotypes.
What Hannah said about working with our team
“National coverage and brilliant support start to finish: The team helped me secure national coverage for a campaign and everything they did from taking the brief and interviewing the case studies, to drafting the content and liaising with the media was done brilliantly. I was so happy to have them working alongside me and will definitely be using them again."
- Hannah Brice, campaign collaborator
This is Hannah's supplied feedback on the PR delivery and collaboration. It is not represented as a quote from a person living with Tourette syndrome, and it is not a claim about clinical outcomes, donations or measurable shifts in public opinion.
| Date | Publication | Story |
|---|---|---|
| June 2023 | iNews | Personal story about Tourette syndrome and dating |
| 7 June 2023 | Mirror Online | Doctors said my tic was attention-seeking - but then I had my eureka moment |
| 7 June 2023 | Metro | People say I'm lying for attention: What it's like living with Tourette's |
Images from the coverage
What this shows about charity and awareness PR
A charity's best media opportunity is often not the organisation's own statement. It can be the honest story of someone connected to its cause, especially when their experience challenges what readers assume they already know.
This campaign shows three practical lessons.
The first is that timely awareness moments help explain why a topic matters now, but the newsworthy story still needs to stand on its own. The second is that human-interest stories need distinct angles, even if they support the same underlying cause. The third is that the quality of collaboration matters: interviewing people, preparing accurate material and working with journalists are essential parts of delivering sensitive publicity responsibly.
Three national articles cannot measure the whole effect of an awareness campaign. They can, however, provide public examples of the conversation the campaign helped make possible.
Results at a glance
| Result | Details |
|---|---|
| Campaign | Three-month charity awareness and real-life-story PR campaign |
| Charity | Tourette's Action, UK |
| Published coverage | Three distinct recorded national articles |
| Publications | iNews, Mirror Online and Metro |
| Story themes | Dating and relationships; misconceptions about tics; being disbelieved |
| Client feedback | Hannah Brice praised interviewing contributors, drafting materials and liaising with journalists |
| Measured impact | No independent traffic, fundraising, reach or awareness-lift figures were provided |
Frequently asked questions
How was Tourette's Action's awareness campaign developed for the media?
The campaign drew on personal experiences of people living with Tourette syndrome. Our team worked with campaign collaborator Hannah Brice, interviewed case-study contributors, prepared media material and liaised with journalists, using different lived-experience angles rather than promoting one generic charity announcement.
What national coverage did the campaign achieve?
The three-month campaign's verified historical record contains three separately linked national articles: a Mirror Online feature about a misunderstood tic and the journey towards understanding it, a Metro story about being accused of seeking attention, and an iNews piece discussing Tourette syndrome and dating. The records relate to the June 2023 awareness activity.
What is important when pitching sensitive real-life stories for a charity?
Accuracy, dignity and the contributor's own perspective matter as much as a strong headline. Journalists need a compelling angle supported by a real person's account, while the campaign team must avoid exaggerated medical claims, simplistic stereotypes and unsupported claims about the resulting public impact.
Tell the stories behind your cause
Whether you represent a charity, a community campaign or an organisation with a genuine human-interest story, useful PR starts with listening, finding the right editorial angle and respecting the people involved.
