The Drew Barrymore role in 50 First Dates is no laughing matter.
While the character of Lucy Whitmore, the loveable yet incredibly forgetful girl in the movie 50 First Dates, may seem like a completely fictional character, that’s not the case at all.
Jenny Gisby, a 20-year-old from Nottingham, England, struggles with the same condition as the 20-something single girl portrayed by Drew Barrymore — a condition where she deals with short-term memory loss to the point where she wakes up each morning without a clue what took place the day before.
It all started last year when Jenny collapsed at work and landed in a coma for a few days. When she woke up, she struggled with a severe seizure, which caused her to become paralyzed. Doctors have diagnosed Jenny with Functional Neurological Disorder (FND) and epilepsy — two conditions that contribute to her memory loss.
