A special shout out to the incredible Fliss who completed the 26 miles in 26 days challenge as part of our Purple Day celebrations.
Fliss, who was diagnosed with epilepsy aged 9, raised an amazing £1,200! She's shared her story in the hope of creating even more awareness.
“I found this challenge very hard, but it was made easier by having the support of my family and everyone who sponsored me.
I am so pleased by how much I have raised and never thought I would raise this much. I would like to say thank you to everyone that sponsored me.
I hope the money helps make a difference to other children with epilepsy" (Fliss)
We’re lucky to have young people like Fliss in our community and can’t wait to see what her future holds. Well done Fliss, we’re incredibly thankful for your hard work!
Fliss' Mum, Laura, explains the impact that the support of the Young Epilepsy Team has had in their lives.
"Fliss’ diagnosis was a big shock. Looking back we think her epilepsy had gone undiagnosed for several years, because her seizures were happening at night. The first medication she tried worked for a few months, but then her seizures started again and became more frequent.
She changed to another medication, which so far seems to be controlling her seizures, but does make her very tired at times. We knew very little about epilepsy and didn’t know there isn’t always a one size fits all solution. It left us feeling very anxious and uncertain.
This is where the Young Epilepsy team gave us invaluable support. As well as advice on what questions to ask when we spoke to doctors and teachers, they helped us choose a suitable seizure monitoring device so we are alerted to her night-time seizures. This helped us finally be able to sleep rather than worrying she might have a seizure without us knowing.
Above all they have been incredibly kind and understanding and a shoulder to cry on during difficult times. We are so grateful for the opportunity to fundraise and help ensure they can continue to help other families like ours.
At first Fliss didn’t want her friends to know about her epilepsy and found it difficult to talk about. Recently though, she was given the opportunity to give a 2 minute talk at school on any subject and chose epilepsy. She used some of the material on the Young Epilepsy website which explains the condition in child-friendly words to help write her speech and gave the talk to her class and then the whole school. We were so proud of her.
When we told Fliss about the 26 miles in 26 days challenge she was really keen to get involved – even though she isn’t a big fan of running!" (Laura)
Thank you so much Fliss for making a big difference in the lives of other children with epilepsy.
Together we create possible
