Blogs

Valentine’s Day can bring up many different feelings. For some it’s a celebration of love and connection, while for others it can highlight loneliness, past breakups, or worries about relationships, especially if you’re living with a long-term condition like epilepsy.

 As both someone who lives with epilepsy and is a qualified Psychosexual and Relationship Therapist, Ella Dixon understands first-hand how epilepsy can impact confidence, mental health, intimacy and relationships. 

Showing my age but I remember the very first episode of Eastenders which opened with a mysterious death. As the soap celebrated its 40^th anniversary last year, I must admit my knowledge of the key characters is a little out of date although I recognised a few familiar faces when watching it last night.

For some people  the Christmas and New Year period is something to look forward to but we know that for others it can be a stressful or lonely time, where our normal routines are temporarily disrupted and we may feel isolated and not as full of festive cheer as we might hope for. 

We’re spotlighting Angeliki Vakrinou, one of our brilliant researchers whose work on genomic medicine and epilepsy is helping to shape the future of diagnosis and treatment.

When a family discover a 1944 pocket diary, inscribed in tiny writing with scattered dates  circled in blue ink, they begin to piece together the untold story of their ‘Uncle Keith’ who once fell from a window and then died mysteriously at the age of 40. Here Felice Hawley describes how the family finally got to know and understand her husband’s late Uncle Keith and his struggle with epilepsy.

Issa Yannakis is a third year BA illustration student at Falmouth University. As part of their work for their final exams, they created an artwork that reflects their personal experience of epilepsy. Here they talk about their piece and the impact of living with epilepsy on both them and their family.