On the 12th of January 2015 my amazing Dad Russell Gordon went to bed a fit and healthy 51 year old man, I had no warning that when I said goodnight he was never going to wake up.

After leading a stressful life, just like any other business man, the alpha male with 4 high maintenance girls to look after (Mum, my sister Charlotte, myself and our little Maltese diva, Bella) he would exercise regularly and enjoy a drink as part of his 'down time'. Through his whole life he never had epilepsy or in fact any health problems. He was the sort of man that hadn’t been to the doctors since he was young and didn't even take paracetamol as he thought headaches were just 'psychological'.

In Feb 2014 after what we believe was an overload of stress, he had a grand mal seizure in the middle of the night. Luckily we were all there and managed to get an ambulance to treat him. I can honestly say that was the scariest night of my life. I'd never seen a seizure before and we had no idea what had happened to him. The doctors explained he was lucky to have survived, as the seizure was so severe. After this he found it very difficult to accept that he couldn't drive and also that he was no longer the indestructible man that everyone knew. He was embarrassed and viewed it as a weakness.

My Dad has always been the best family man showering us with love, affection and constant security. It really scared him to think that this could happen to him again. So he did everything 'right', he stopped drinking, didn't drink caffeine, ate well and tried to get a full undisturbed 8 hours sleep. He had several different tests for the following couple of months and was eventually told he was absolutely fine. He was even able to drive again and we all went back to trying to live as normal as possible. My Mum, sister and I would reflect on that traumatic night though and struggle to sleep, constantly wondering whether it could happen again.

Almost a year later he went to bed as he normally did with no signs of anything wrong and never woke up. There was no dramatic seizure he just went in his sleep. I still can't get my head around what on earth happened in his brain that night and I'll never know. Even the experts don't know anywhere near enough about the brain and how all of a sudden like a computer it can just shut down.

I could write for hours about our story and I know so many young people have been through the same, we need to do something about it! Here is the website on our chosen charity 'Sudep'.

https://sudep.org

We all love you Dad, you are and always will be the most important man in my life and not a second goes by that I would do anything to see you again.