My eldest daughter and I are running a 10k to raise money for the Epilepsy Society. My youngest daughter Abbey suffers from epilepsy, which developed suddenly when she was an otherwise healthy fourteen year old. Since then, it has been something she has had to struggle with every day. Her seizures can strike at any time; she went through a phase where they were occurring every week, and these could happen anywhere – at home, school, college, abroad, and most worryingly, when she was outside the house on her own. As you can imagine, this has had a huge impact on her life. Abbey can’t learn to drive, go to theme parks, drink or go swimming… she has even found it difficult to pursue her dream of working with children due to this condition.

It has taken 5 years and a week-long stay in Addenbrookes for Abbey to finally be prescribed a medication strong enough to at least partly control the seizures. This comes at a cost; side effects like tiredness and shaking affect her every day. Unfortunately, seizures can still occur at any time.

Many of you will know someone with epilepsy; it can affect absolutely anyone and can come on at any stage. Anyone reading this that knows Abbey will know that she is a happy, strong and extremely positive person, who refuses to let epilepsy control her. Please sponsor us – even just a quid – to raise money for the Epilepsy Society! Thank you X