My daughter Charlie was diagnosed with absence seizures (CAE, Childhood Absence Epilepsy) in August 2019 at the age of 3.5 years old. We have no known family history of seizures so this definitely caught us off guard. She has been well controlled on medications that she takes twice daily since September 2019 and we feel so fortunate to have had access to this medication and a quick, successful response. We are happy to report she is now a happy, healthy Kindergartener eager to learn and take on the world!

So what is the outlook for children like Charlie... "At least 2 out of 3 children with CAE respond to treatment and the seizures disappear by mid-adolescence. In these cases, antiseizure medications can be weaned off . Approximately 10-15% of children will develop other seizure types in adolescence, usually generalized tonic-clonic and myoclonic seizures." - epilepsy.com  

This will be my 3rd NYC Marathon, having previously run in 2016 and 2018. I have completed over 30 marathons and multiple ultramarathons including 50km, 50 mile and 100km races. I keep coming back to the NYC Marathon for the beautiful course and incredible energy delivered by the five boroughs. 

Please help support families like ours who rely on organizations such as Cure Epilepsy to promote and fund patient-centered research. Charlie is able to live her best life right now because of the advances made from this research. 

Thank you! Melissa & the Alfred Family