A devastating age-reversing disease has regressed two middle-aged brothers back to their childhood in the UK, a bizarre condition that mirrors Brad Pitt's role in the American fiction 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'.
The pair, 39-year-old Matthew and his former RAF member brother Michael Clark, 42, has reportedly contracted terminal leukodystrophy last year.
While Michael is believed to have a mental age of 10 now and giggles constantly. Factory worker Matthew behaves like a small child. They now spend their days watching television, eating crisps and playing snakes and ladders.
Their illness echoes Brad Pitt's character in the 2008 Hollywood drama in which he starts out as an old man but ages in reverse and gets younger, The Sun reported.
Their parents Anthony and Christine Clark have now abandoned plans to retire to Spain to look after them.
Mr Anthony, from Lincoln, Lincs, said: "It is a devastating disease. Both of them are very childlike now.
"Matthew went out the other day and bought himself a train set and a Mr Potato Head. He also has these awful episodes where he screams and shouts and says 'I don't know what I'm doing'.
"It is like an adult having a toddler's tantrum. It's obviously worse for him but it is terrible for us too. We feel absolutely powerless."
While Matthew was fired from his job as a factory worker for behaving like a child, Michael's symptoms became more apparent when he was evicted from service for not looking after himself, Mr Anthony, 63, said.
Concerned Salvation Army workers sent him to a doctor and it was then that experts diagnosed terminal leukodystrophy.
"The doctors carried out an MRI scan and they discovered the condition. When they asked him if he had any siblings he said he had a brother and they ran tests on Matthew and discovered he had the same thing," Mr Anthony added.
Leukodystrophy is a neurological disease which affects the brain, nervous system and the spinal cord. Little is known about the condition.
The pair, 39-year-old Matthew and his former RAF member brother Michael Clark, 42, has reportedly contracted terminal leukodystrophy last year.
While Michael is believed to have a mental age of 10 now and giggles constantly. Factory worker Matthew behaves like a small child. They now spend their days watching television, eating crisps and playing snakes and ladders.
Their illness echoes Brad Pitt's character in the 2008 Hollywood drama in which he starts out as an old man but ages in reverse and gets younger, The Sun reported.
Their parents Anthony and Christine Clark have now abandoned plans to retire to Spain to look after them.
Mr Anthony, from Lincoln, Lincs, said: "It is a devastating disease. Both of them are very childlike now.
"Matthew went out the other day and bought himself a train set and a Mr Potato Head. He also has these awful episodes where he screams and shouts and says 'I don't know what I'm doing'.
"It is like an adult having a toddler's tantrum. It's obviously worse for him but it is terrible for us too. We feel absolutely powerless."
While Matthew was fired from his job as a factory worker for behaving like a child, Michael's symptoms became more apparent when he was evicted from service for not looking after himself, Mr Anthony, 63, said.
Concerned Salvation Army workers sent him to a doctor and it was then that experts diagnosed terminal leukodystrophy.
"The doctors carried out an MRI scan and they discovered the condition. When they asked him if he had any siblings he said he had a brother and they ran tests on Matthew and discovered he had the same thing," Mr Anthony added.
Leukodystrophy is a neurological disease which affects the brain, nervous system and the spinal cord. Little is known about the condition.
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