A very nice man from the local paper came to our house last week to write an article about Purple Day and our older daughter. Our daughter has epilepsy or a seizure disorder as well as having Non-verbal Learning Disorder. Last year she gave a short speech at an assembly at her school and fielded a few questions afterwards. I was so proud of her. It's not easy for an 11 year old to tell her whole school of almost 100 kids and staff that she is different.
This year we are participating in a lot more Purple Day events: a charity skate with Vancouver Canuck Mason Raymond, an Abbotsford Heat hockey game, a Purple Day/ Martial Arts presentation at Metro Centre and a display at our school culminating in an assembly later this week. We have been meeting other folks with epilepsy and making some nice connections. It turns out that one in every hundred people has epilepsy. That's more than multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy and Parkinson's disease combined! And according to the folks at The Centre for Epilepsy, many people still face barriers due to a lack of awareness about the disorder.
I guess my daughter is that one in a hundred, at her school anyway. She is nervous about speaking in front of everybody of course, but glad to spread the word. Forty years ago, I remember a student at my high school having a seizure and how we all stood and watched. I was terrified and had no idea what I was seeing. Now thanks to people like my daughter, if we see someone having a seizure, we will know what to do:
1. Stay calm & stay with the person.
2. Time the seizure.
3. Roll the person onto their side.
(Do not restrain the person or put anything in their mouth.)
This year we are participating in a lot more Purple Day events: a charity skate with Vancouver Canuck Mason Raymond, an Abbotsford Heat hockey game, a Purple Day/ Martial Arts presentation at Metro Centre and a display at our school culminating in an assembly later this week. We have been meeting other folks with epilepsy and making some nice connections. It turns out that one in every hundred people has epilepsy. That's more than multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy and Parkinson's disease combined! And according to the folks at The Centre for Epilepsy, many people still face barriers due to a lack of awareness about the disorder.
I guess my daughter is that one in a hundred, at her school anyway. She is nervous about speaking in front of everybody of course, but glad to spread the word. Forty years ago, I remember a student at my high school having a seizure and how we all stood and watched. I was terrified and had no idea what I was seeing. Now thanks to people like my daughter, if we see someone having a seizure, we will know what to do:
1. Stay calm & stay with the person.
2. Time the seizure.
3. Roll the person onto their side.
(Do not restrain the person or put anything in their mouth.)
Call 1-866-EPILEPSY or go to http://www.epilepsy.cc/ for more information. Thanks for reading!
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