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An ambassador for The Voice for Epilepsy, Jade-Kelsie Wolfenden inspires other sufferers to live without limits and raises awareness of epilepsy I had my first serious seizure on my learn to live with it and not feel alone. 21st birthday when I was out in town. I would like epilepsy to be as well I lost consciousness and started understood and supported as cancer. convulsing but people thought I was There needs to be more research just very drunk and some people into treatment too. There are lots of even ignored it and stepped over me. side effects from the medication and I didn’t take the diagnosis very well some days it’s hard for me to string a and just carried on with my normal life sentence together, I can get tremors in but because it takes a long time for my hands or feel very tired. medication to get it under control (up It’s important to educate people so to two years) I kept having seizures. that they understand what epilepsy It was absolutely awful and I had two looks like and how to deal with it. One bad ones where my heart stopped and time I was out with my partner and I had to be defibrillated. At one point I people thought he’d hit me because was in ICU with tubes down my throat. I dropped to the floor in front of The diagnosis itself is a lot to take in. him. People don’t realise but My driving license was taken off me there are over 40 different and I was told I couldn’t be alone so, types of seizure, ranging from after five years of being independent, convulsive ones to absence I had to move in with my mum. I was seizures, where it looks working at a gym and as a personal like you’re daydreaming trainer, as well as being a body builder, or ignoring someone. but I was told I couldn’t teach classes I actually ignored my and banned from personal training. seizures for a while, often Suddenly my hours were cut from assuming that I’d fainted. 40 a week to eight. It felt like I’d been stripped of all my independence. Epilepsy can also be embarrassing, as you have no control over your body, including bowel movements sometimes. You More than half a million don’t want people to see people in the UK have epilepsy you like that but you have and it can affect anyone, at any time of life. Find out more here: to tell yourself it’s not your thevoiceforepilepsy.co.uk fault. I actually have hearing loss because I’ve banged my head so many times while having a seizure. When you get diagnosed with epilepsy you just get told what you can’t do. Voice for Epilepsy helps people to understand the diagnosis,
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If you think someone is having a seizure you need to time it and call the ambulance if it lasts more than five minutes. You should make sure the area around them is clear and if possible get something soft under their head but don’t touch them. When they come round they may be disorientated. I often don’t know who my partner is, my name or where I am. I once hit a paramedic and tried to run away. After I had a bad seizure at the gym I set up a YouTube channel to talk about having epilepsy and how it effects training, and I’m now proud to be an ambassador for The Voice for Epilepsy. After I came round from a seizure once a paramedic said to me: “I’m so proud that you’re able to live your life because my sister won’t leave the house because of epilepsy,” and that’s always stuck with me. I am a different person to who I was before I was diagnosed, but I’m doing really well. I can drive and I compete in bodybuilding as well as owning my own gym – I’m even working towards competing in the Olympia, the biggest body building competition in the world! I’m also looking forward to doing more fund- and awareness-raising on behalf of The Voice for Epilepsy.
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