I nearly died from epilepsy – Cat Deeley should be ashamed of herself, it’s no joke for chronic sufferers like me
LAST night after I finished work I did something I’ve never done before – complained to Ofcom.
I’ve got occipital lobe epilepsy – epilepsy that starts in the visual lobe of the brain – and take an eye-watering amount of tablets everyday just to stay alive.
It emerged when I was about eight, I had my first tonic clonic seizure at 13 (the kind of seizure you imagine when you think of epilepsy), and it largely vanished at 26 when I started taking antiepileptics.
However, it emerged again six years ago – only I’m not collapsing this time.
Epilepsy is a huge, heavy burden and seizure jokes aren’t funny in the slightest.
Cat Deeley – who I’ve loved since her CD:UK days – ought to be ashamed of herself for making such a crass, ableist remark.
Yesterday on This Morning, while dancing to Meghan Trainor’s All About That Bass, she sniggered and said something about ‘having a seizure’.
Well Cat, let me tell you what having a seizure is really like.
It’s dislocated shoulders (four at last count – fingers crossed that’s the end of it after having major surgery), being rushed to hospital because you’ve smashed your head so hard your eyes have haemorrhaged, waking with your mouth full of blood, days off where you can’t go on holiday because you are so tired so you just sleep.
It’s learning the tablets you take to control the seizures mean you won’t ever have children – but what choice do you have?
It’s waking on the floor of a car park at night, not knowing where you are…or who you are.
It’s trying really, really, really hard every day just to level the playing field.
It’s the breakdown of relationships (having a girlfriend with epilepsy isn’t fun).
I know her ‘joke’ was said in jest but it’s time epilepsy was taken seriously.
A shocking 1/1000 people with epilepsy die from SUDEP – sudden unexplained death in epilepsy.
Even when it’s controlled, it’s endless hospital appointments.
It’s tablets which exhaust you, that give you acne (hence the fringe), it’s NHS waiting rooms and days spent crying.
Depression and anxiety is much higher in people with epilepsy.
This Morning used to be a mainstay of TV but blunders like this – and I think it was a blunder – are so unhelpful.
I’m not surprised the epilepsy community is so furious… I am, hence someone as lazy as me complaining to Ofcom.
She ought to be ashamed and embarrassed about her comment.
On Tuesday morning Cat Cat apologised to viewers but while her mea culpa is welcome, it’s symptomatic of a wider problem with society as a whole.
Sadly, many people don’t take epilepsy seriously, or understand it.
People think ‘it’s just seizures’ not realising how devastating it can be for the sufferers and the families and friends of sufferers.
Imagine going out and not knowing if you were going to collapse or be pulled – unwittingly and terrifyingly – into what’s effectively a parallel universe because your brain has decided not to play ball.
It’s dismissed as a trivial condition and, honestly, I think it’s because epilepsy is largely an invisible illness.
What is epilepsy?
Epilepsy is a condition of the brain which can disrupt the electrical communication between neurons in the nervous system.
This often leads to seizures, a sudden event that can change a person’s awareness, behaviour or feeling.
The condition is typically diagnosed when a person has two or more unprovoked fits separated by at least 24 hours.
Epilepsy can begin at any age, but it tends to affect people either in early childhood or who are older than 60.