Thanks, Sophie & her family x

My family are going to be organising some fundraising events to try and
raise some money for this amazing charity so please support if you can. Every little helps.

I had amazing neurologists plus the best boyfriend, family, friends and
colleagues I could have asked for. In amongst all of this, I found this gem of a charity who are trying there best to raise awareness of this horrible disease. Be honest, had you heard of it before I got it? I hadn't! So there's clearly work to be done and we want to help. The Encephalitis Society have already been so helpful to me - providing support, information & just a sense of community that you can't get anywhere else.
Encephalitis causes inflammation of the brain and has a fatality rate as high as 10-30%. For those of us who do make it through, we are left with various forms of brain damage. Me? I now have epilepsy so have seizures and will be on medication for the rest of my life. I take 12 tablets a day and yet it still only reduces, not stops, my seizures. Thats the best I can hope for. I have lost my memory of the 6 months of so leading up to becoming ill. I have an awful memory now - and I don't mean the "oh where did I put my pen" kind of memory hiccups that we all have - I mean getting lost on the way home from work, forgetting a conversation 2 mins after I've had it kind of memory. I
have such severe fatigue that I've had to go part time at work. But I got lucky compared to a lot of people. So so lucky!
Well it was with Encephalitis; a rare but serious brain infection. It
strikes completely out of the blue...I had gone to bed one night just feeling like I was coming down with a cold. Well didn't Luke get a shock that night being woken up by me in the middle of a seizure...and didn't I get a shock waking up in hospital weeks later finding out I'd been in a coma!!
As most of you will know, I was really ill at the end of 2013. Various
hospitals, intensive care, lumbar punctures, brain rehab...I've done it all.