Many members of our Club have been touched by epilepsy through their family and friends. Our guest speaker on Tuesday 2nd October, Krystle Crimmins, enlightened us about epilepsy and the eight different seizure types, some of which are invisible and others visible. Krystal as a young woman of Karori has had to learn how to cope with her own epilepsy. She found people in general had a lot of misinformation and prejudice about epilepsy.
Against a background of a general lack of community awareness and knowledge about epilepsy, Krystle explained how to deal with a seizure, whether it is visible or barely noticeable. One in twenty people will have an epileptic seizure of some sort in their lifetime, yet there are still many myths around epilepsy that impact adversely on people and their employment. Epilepsy affects people in different ways, it is not a mental illness and there are also myths such as swallowing one’s tongue.
Krystle has written a book about epilepsy to explain the triggers, the different seizure types and dispel the myths. The book, titled Epilepsy First Aid: A comprehensive guide to types of Epileptic Seizures and how to administer First Aid, is available at https://epilepsyfirstaid.com/
If you do come across a person having a seizure go and help. Create Advocacy and Awareness among employers about Epilepsy. Be more accepting of those with Epilepsy.
We wish Krystle well in her goals to promote awareness and recognition of epilepsy, to advocate on behalf of those with epilepsy and for sponsorship to help with the business cost of getting her resources to organisations, workplaces and schools.
Also note that November is Epilepsy Awareness Month.