Myfanwy Rees

I'm going purple this March!

I'm going purple because... I want to support the 270,000 Australians whose lives are mucked up by epilepsy. I am one of those people. I found out I had epilepsy when I was 26years old. I had been having partial seizures my whole life without knowing what it was. I just felt weird so I didn't tell anyone because I was embarrassed and it didn't happen often so I never said anything. I had my first TC seizure after a long period of sleep deprivation and as a result it greatly impacted my ability to work in the Royal Australian Navy. Having epilepsy greatly impacts my ability to work all the time in many different roles not just because of having seizures, because I rarely do, its because of the stigma around having epilepsy and not being allowed to do so many things which makes me feel like i cant live my life like I want to. As a result of taking anti-epileptic meds for such a long time it has also greatly impacted my mental health and can impact your overall energy which is also another extremely important thing that no one talks about. These meds are depressants and as a result can negatively impact MH which is another huge challenge for everyone living with epilepsy that I want to raise awareness of.