Every life is different, and everyone deserves treatment that's right for them
This Christmas, your donation could support vital research into more precise diagnosis and more personalised treatment - as well as care, information and support for people affected by epilepsy.
No two snowflakes are quite the same. And when it comes to epilepsy, individual differences matter too. Donate this Christmas and help fund research that could bring more people closer to the answers they need.
Hannah and Harry both live with epilepsy, but their experiences couldn't be more different.
Hannah: When everything changed overnight
Hannah was studying to become a paramedic when a seizure in her sleep suddenly changed her life. She was no longer able to drive, faced new restrictions on her training and was left waiting for answers about what living with epilepsy could mean for her future
"I thought I'd be in hospital for a day or two, and then I'd just carry on."
But the impact didn't end when Hannah left hospital. She had to surrender her driving license. Her university placed restrictions on parts of her paramedic training. And because driving is important for many ambulance service roles, epilepsy put uncertainty around the career she had been working towards. She is also still waiting for some of the tests that could provide more information about her epilepsy.
Despite this, Hannah has continued studying, travelled to Sri Lanka and refuses to let epilepsy decide what comes next. For someone like Hannah, better understanding and more precise diagnosis could mean fewer unanswered questions, and greater confidence about the future.
“I wanted to protect her. Basically I wanted Hannah to stay in her bedroom and never leave it. But of course, I know she's got to go out and live her life."
- Hannah's mum, Laura
Harry: When epilepsy kept getting in the way
Harry’s epilepsy began very differently. He was just seven when his family first noticed something was wrong. As he grew older, epilepsy gradually began putting limits around the life he wanted to lead.
He couldn't learn to drive alongside his friends. Going out independently brought constant worry for his mum Hilary. And as his seizures became more serious, more and more medications were added. Prior to coming to the Chalfont Centre, Hilary remembers him taking around nine different drugs.
At Chalfont, things finally began to change. Dr Rugg-Gunn and the team listened to Harry, reviewed the medications he was taking and supported him through reducing many of them - working towards a treatment approach that suited him better
Today Harry has been seizure free for more than two years. Now 40, he lives independently. He has travelled on his own, He is looking for work and spends precious time with his daughter. And on the morning Hilary spoke to us, his provisional driving license arrived in the post. Harry's experience shows what can be at stake when finding the right treatment takes years - and what can become possible when the right approach is finally found.