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hi

i’m pippa and i’m 15 years old and this is my story

i was diagnosed with epilepsy at age 14 after suffering a seizure in school age 12

it was just a regular day in school with my friends and teachers, i was in the middle of maths class and the paper went blurry, i had an eye test booked because that had been happening for the past week, i asked the boy next to me to read it and i’m not sure if he was trying to be a comedian but he started to read it out loud so i asked him if he could physically read the sheet and he said he could

i wrote down the first question and then went to write the second and i remember bumping my head on the table and then everything just went blank and then i woke up in the medial room with lots of teachers around me

they told me that my mum was coming to pick me up and because my school barely sends anyone home that’s when i started to get a bit suspicious

my mum and granddad turned up and then mum told me that i’d had a seizure

later on my best friend enolagh told me everything that had happened, apparently i’d landed on the shoulders of the boy who read the sheet out before and another girl got the teacher’s attention whilst the medical staff sorted me out and my best friend was just in the corner crying bless her

my worst seizure was probably the next year after that when i had coronavirus, i was cuddled up with my mum on the couch under a blanket watching tv, we both had coronavirus so we were both off work and school to rest, suddenly i started to not breathe all of a sudden and then passed out, i don’t remember much but then later on in the evening we were still cuddled up watching tv and having our tea and then suddenly i couldn’t breathe again and just launched my plate into my mums arms because that time i knew that i was going to pass out again!

i don’t want anyone to go through what i’ve had to go through

i want to make schools especially and the general public aware of epilepsy because it’s not very well educated about, during all of my time in school and i’m in year 11 now, i’ve never had a single lesson about epilepsy ever, only in my duke of edinburgh lessons because i was taking part and it was to show people what to do if i was to go into a seizure, luckily we didn’t need to do any of that and it was a very good but tiring trip!

i made a petition on change.org and it nearly has 500 signatures and to some people that may seem like a small number but to me that’s mind blowing, i made a blog on social media and it shows the daily life of a teenager like me with epilepsy and how my lifestyle is like every day, it’s not all fun and games, i wake up tired most days and drowsy due to my medication and my walking is sometimes affected too, i limp around a lot, i have to have insteps in my shoes, i might have autism and this has all stemmed from just one seizure!

i was nominated for a National Diversity Award too, my next goal is when i leave school next year, i’m going to start this after christmas, i’m going to save up to buy lots of epilepsy packs and donate them to schools all across england, i want to do assemblies also since children and young people and schools need educating, teachers need educating too, not just the students, my school gives me all the support i need but not all schools are like that

i’ve also written to my local MP and my plea to everyone is to just make more awareness about epilepsy and that’s all i ask for!

thank you

Thanks

Pippa