Sunday Night: Aug 14

This week on Sunday Night stories on women wanting to join the AFL, a girl with “Werewolf Syndrome” and an interview with Rowan Atkinson.

The Last Barrier.
Imagine a day when a woman takes the field to play professional footy alongside the men. Never happen?…well think again. Former Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett, now the President of Hawthorn, believes the day is fast approaching when a woman is drafted into the AFL.

Guest reporter Peter FitzSimons, a former Wallaby, meets three attractive, articulate, and committed women hell-bent on playing footy with the boys. And when you see the big hits, the big plays, and big marks, you’ll see why it’s on the cards.

Chloe Butler is a part-time model who plays rugby for love with the ACT Women Brumbies, and plays for the dollars in the Lingerie Football League in the US. Kristy Giteau, sister of Wallaby playmaker Matt Giteau, has also represented her country and is in the forward line pushing for more recognition for women’s rugby. Then there is Penny Cula-Reid, an AFL star who had to take Football Victoria to court as a teenager for the right to play with boys. Not everyone agrees. Outspoken former AFL star Jason Akermanis tells “Fitzy” women should only ever play against other women.

Rowan Atkinson on living dangerously.
A week after breaking his shoulder in a crash driving one of the world’s most expensive cars Rowan Atkinson talks to reporter Alex Cullen about life in the fast lane. The rubber-faced funny man is reported to be almost $2 million out of pocket after crashing his McLaren Formula 1 sports car in the English countryside. Best known for his characters Mr Bean and Blackadder, Atkinson describes his sadness at the ‘recreational anarchy’ taking place on the streets of London, how he has decided to ‘retire’ Mr Bean, and his very normal life away from the screen.

The girl branded a werewolf who holds the cure to baldness.
Sunday Night reporter Tim Noonan meets a remarkable 11-year-old girl who is, quite literally, one in a billion. Brave Supatra suffers from an incredibly rare chromosomal disorder called Ambras Syndrome – or Werewolf Syndrome – which results in her body being covered in hair, including all over her face. She has endured a lifetime of cruelty and taunts, being mocked and called “monkey girl”, and she’s even listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s hairiest girl, but Supatra refuses to retreat or be cowed.

There have only been 50 documented cases of Ambras Syndrome since the Middle Ages, and until now it was thought to be incurable. But scientists in America and China have joined together to study Supatra and have made a breakthrough in discovering what triggers her excessive hair growth. It is now only a matter of time before billions of people around the world who suffer from baldness will be able to get treatment thanks to this one little girl.

* Also this week, Sunday Night revisits the story of ‘Healing Hearts’ – about the 12,000 Australian women who die of heart related diseases every year – which won Rahni Sadler the 2011 Victor Chang Award for Excellence in Cardiovascular Journalism. Jo Court, wife of former WA Premier Richard Court, has a message for Australia.

Sunday Night airs on Sunday at 6.30pm on Seven.