I don’t do that much work personally for charity but that is because there is only one charity that stole my heart.
On December 23 2006 my youngest sister was ripped out of my family’s lives forever, here is our story.
It was like any other xmas excitement was in the air, everyone was dashing around buying food, last minute presents, going out with friends.... until that morning when the whole world melted away. ‘Sudden Unexplained Death’ perfectly named if you ask me, simply explained to us as an adult version of Cot Death, I had never heard of it before, but as my parent have come to realise through conferences they attend – thousands suffer the consequences every day. Due to my sister having a fit in the previous 18 months the Coroner announced the cause of death as ‘Sudden Unexplained Death in Epilepsy’ (SUDEP).
This is the charity I wish to raise money for by doing a sky dive. The year she passed away, that June it was her 18 birthday, myself and my two older sisters along with mom and dad gave her the surprise of her life – a skydive. She thought it was amazing and loved every second – I think it is the perfect way to raise money and awareness to the cause.
My sister was offered medication for her epilepsy but she turned it down as she had just started university and wanted to enjoy the university experience and not have the drugs interfering with her studies. If she had been more aware of SUDEP would she have taken the medication and enjoyed more of the university experience and the more of a life than she had hoped for? We will never know- but I would like to help somebody else’s family understand and help those families that have been torn through the loss of someone who didn’t deserve to go.
Her name was Kathryn, she was truly beautiful inside and out, she was intelligent, funny and quirky in a special Treadwell kind of way that made her lovable. Her funeral was breathtaking the amount of people that attended made your heart ache. The number of lives she touched for such a young age I am proud to be her sister. She wanted to be a librarian or a historian and I have no doubt she would have achieved her goal – she was both ambitious and determined, if she only would have had the chance.
They say no parent should have to bury a child, no big sister should have to bury one who’s younger – no one should not have the chance to say goodbye to their best friend.
Terrible, tragic things happen every day to everyone around us but sometimes it is too hard to share – today I have shared with you the worst time in my life so that you will help me share the facts about SUDEP to those who need it most.
http://www.sudep.org/how-we-can-help-you/case-studiestestimonials/in-memory-of-kathryn/
We were and always will be the treadwellinas.
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