On the 17^th June my best friend Lara Weston passed away after suffering from an epileptic seizure. She was 22. She had suffered from epilepsy from childhood and during the last 14 years of her life she had battled with it continuously. Although the epilepsy sometimes got the best of her, she would pick herself up and carry on. She was one of the friendliest people I knew, had a laugh you could pick out of a crowd and could match me on my tea drinking (I drink a lot!).

Although I knew Lara has epilepsy I never thought she would die young. In my amazing best friend's memory I am raising money and awareness of epilepsy.

Many people are not aware that epilepsy affects 50 million people worldwide and 600,000 people in the UK. A third of these people cannot have their seizures controlled through medication. Lara was one of them. People who have epilepsy are 11 times more likely to suffer early death particularly if suffering from uncontrollable (refractory) epilepsy, the kind Lara had. Sadly every year in the UK, 1200 people die from epilepsy related conditions.

At the present time, there is not enough awareness about epilepsy and there is not enough funding available to research the necessary fields to find alternative ways to control it.  The money I raise will go to Epilepsy Research to help fund research projects in the prevention, treatment and cure of epilepsy.

Thank you so much for any donations