One chunk of brain later, I am running this 10k to support the charity and hope that this help can continue saving lives, accelerating awareness, and driving research. I’m participating in this run not only as a challenge to myself but to support the ongoing encephalitis conditions charity.

Whilst I wish it was something I had never heard about before , I also want to share information to help us all understand , and one day prevent the damage of encephalitis .

BUT It’s not all doom and gloom - This may be a long read and research, so I made a hospital and brain surgery-related song playlist on Spotify to entertain you 🧠! (https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3Tcw4oSOgdJghHc8XJ3PPZ?si=pYWFTFSDQiyTentugY0miA&utm_source=copy-link&pi=Vduiy-6NTCmDn)

Whilst every 20 seconds, someone, somewhere in the world is diagnosed with encephalitis, over 77% of people have either not heard or do not know what it is (including myself). The definition of Encephalitis is "acute inflammation of the brain tissue, most commonly caused by a viral infection or an immune system malfunction. It is a serious medical emergency that causes the brain to swell, potentially leading to confusion, seizures, and life-threatening complications."

How do you spot it?

As part of their ongoing support and care, something to help spot early signs of encephalitis is us assessing F.L.A.M.E.S in the brain ( https://www.encephalitis.info/FLAMES-resources/)

Flu- like symptoms

Loss of consciousness

Acute headaches

Memory problems

Emotional or Behavioural changes

Seizures

For me: after a Christmas period, I woke up in a struggle with headaches, sickness, and confusion and thought it was just an ongoing hangover from my birthday and Christmas. After days and days of growing fatigue, I started to decline physically and was losing the ability to form sentences and converse. This was paired with headaches, being sick, and the inability to sleep.

But due to the concerns of close friends and family I was sent to the hospital, in which I was later diagnosed with encephalitis due to HSV2 manifesting with a haemorrhage. This emergency hospital transferred to brain surgery. Through overnight ambulance service, this was to remove part of the brain to prevent further swelling and damage. Whilst there were a series of difficulties such as ongoing memory loss, I then processed through aftercare to return to a way of living through cooking, walking, memory, speech classes, returns to work and more over 34 hospital days. From this I am eternally grateful for the friends, family, colleagues and carers who put me first, cared, and had to go through this with me. I want to help prevent this from happening to anyone

To help spot it and minimise the situation I want to support the encephalitis national charity, - a not-for-profit organisation providing information and support for those affected by encephalitis. It funds, works, and research into this condition, whilst raising awareness of encephalitis for the public and medical and health professionals. Their aims are “create a world without death and disability from encephalitis”

This is something to help us feel alert and prepared in what could happen. I want to help support their work in helping investigation, financial protection information. Further, I want to do this to further support the lives of patient’s families and supporting healthcare staffs too. From donating

We can help in many ways such as:

• £25 pays for one support line call which helps families stay calm when their lives may feel like they are falling apart

• £50 pays for award-winning and NHS- accredited information for GP Practices

• £75 delivers a virtual gathering, bringing people together affected by encephalitis helping reduce isolation and boosting confidence through learning from each other.

I am severally grateful for any support from the procedures period and now - Thank you and let’s smash 10k and encephalitis!