Crusade For A Cure

Most people have heard of the great siege of Malta and the knights of St John and their crusades. You may also recall that the knights are the forerunners of what we know today as St John’s ambulance, an organisation which proudly displays the Maltese cross. The knights were men of medicine so it seems fitting that Maltese born, Australian singer song-writer Joseph Portelli’s crusade is a medical one. Joseph Portelli likens a cause close to his heart, the battle against Alzheimer’s disease, as something akin to a battle and a fight just as the knights of St John dually practiced medicine and the life of soldiers.

Joseph’s dad has been assaulted by Alzheimer’s disease for many years and watching his dad’s deteriorating health has prompted Joseph to use his skills as a singer songwriter to take up arms against this insidious disease.

As we speak Joseph’s conversation is littered with analogies to a fight and battle, and of the learning to live with the enemy and respect it. He sees Alzheimer’s disease as a foreign body that lays siege to the host, the one with the illness.

Joseph has been a musician from his childhood and although it consumes him he sometimes wishes it didn’t and he didn’t have this talent. Especially at the time of writing his deeply personal reflection on the ravages of Alzheimer’s, he felt it was for himself and didn’t feel like commercialising the song and sharing these deeply personal feelings, yet as the same time he realises by sharing this song of reflections he is helping those going through the same situation and also bring awareness to this condition. With the possibility that cases of dementia are set to escalate in the future more awareness of the condition and funding for research is imperative.

Music is part of the genetic make-up of Joseph’s family, his dad played the guitar and his mother has an uncle who was a symphony conductor. Cousins play pianos and saxophones and orchestral experience runs though the family.

His mum, as well as being musically inclined is also a nurse and it was she that first recognised the early symptoms of Alzheimer’s in her husband. Joseph remembers his mum sitting he and his siblings down to a talk where she explained what their dad was going through. Joseph’s mum and other family members are now carers of his dad. Joseph also wants to highlight the work of carers and the support they need in their important role that is not dissimilar to that of an explorer discovering an uncharted territory.

Joseph’s catch phrase is’ think ahead, to go ahead’ and that is what the governments and medical researchers of the world need to do to combat and conquer like the knights of St John, in this case this mysterious and invasive enemy known as Alzheimer’s disease.

Joseph splits its time between Melbourne, Australia and his homeland of Malta.

He will be in the UK presently for press conferences with the International Alzheimer’s Association.

Joseph’s song ‘How the Times Have Changed’ will be launched 17th September.

Please download the song on iTunes and help awareness of Alzheimer’s and the crusade for a cure.

You can watch a video of the song here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wv3MCTS-NCE&feature=youtu.be
Paula Xiberras