Epilepsy Purple Ambassador

I am Emma Langley, an epileptic who is raising funds for the Epilepsy Society. I will be twittering, facebooking and doing lots of activities throughout the year to raise funds towards epilepsy research, and, to help people with epilepsy live better lives. This year I was made a Purple Ambassador for my area by the Purple Day Team, I will be doing my best to fulfill this honour.

I had a bad head injury whilst playing rugby roughly 4 years ago, which led to the left side of my brain swelling. I had a fit at the time, and went on to have further fits over a 3 year period. On 16th October 2009 I had another full seizure and was taken to hospital. This led to CT and MRI scans to check for brain tumours, luckily none were found. I was sent for an EEG which resulted in me being diagnosed with epilepsy. In the 18 months since the October seizure, I have had to have 11 months off work (which has had a huge strain on my finances). I was given Keppra as my first epi-med. Unfortunately I developed negative side-effects - migraines, suicidal thoughts, depression - I didn't wash, I didn't leave the house etc... I was then moved on to Zebinix, which was going well until I had 3 seizures in the space of one week, and, developed the same side-effects I had with the Keppra, only worse as I cannot not stop thinking about cutting myself. I have now been off for another month with these symptoms. The lovely doctor I have and the fabulous neurologist I see have prescribed me with anti-depressants to help combat the side-effects. My employers have been very understanding and I hope to return in 2 weeks. (I teach at the local college)

International Purple Day and the Epilepsy Society have given me something to focus on which has helped me get through these symptoms. Their support is invaluable and needs to be able to continue - without funding, this cannot happen.

I would like to raise as much as I can by next year's International Purple Day - 26/03/2012.

Epilepsy is the silent disease. It is far too often misunderstood, under-represented and under-estimated. If you can't donate, please help raise awareness by sharing the link to this page.

Emma's Twitter address - @TheEmmaLangley