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Six-year-old makes epilepsy help video just weeks after diagnosis

27 March 2019

Diagnosed with epilepsy just a few weeks ago, six-year-old Ellie Bruce from Montrose has been suffering seizures since she was one and a half.

Ellie with mum Katie

Now she and her mum Katie Mcgowan are determined to put the last four years of uncertainty behind them as they try to help educate the nation on what they feel is a largely misunderstood illness.

They made a social video on International Epilepsy Day. It has been viewed over 3,000 times and will feature in a lecture about epilepsy at Oxford University.

Ellie and her mum spoke to Kaye Adams on Mornings;

Epilepsy Awareness Day

Kaye speaks to 6 year old Ellie who made a video to explain what epilepsy feels like

Ellie, who has been diagnosed with photosensitive epilepsy after four years of seizures, made the video with her mum Katie for her classmates to help them understand her condition.

Dundee’s Ninewells Hospital recently diagnosed Ellie
"Mum, are you ok?"
Six-year-old Ellie to her mum after she's had a seizure

In the video Ellie’s matter of fact attitude is an eye-opener;

“I’m going to explain to you what it actually is with the help of my mummy”, she says.

Her mum then asks her a series of questions about epilepsy and some of her honest answers are, frankly, brilliant.

Mum: “What happens when you have a seizure?”

Ellie: “I pee myself, I get a sore head and sometimes sore bellies. The light needs to go off because that's starting my headaches...sometimes my migraines are superbad and sometimes not.”

Mum: “When you pee like you said how does that make you feel and how do other people react?”

Ellie: “The reaction from people is sometimes not laughing and sometimes laughing.”

Mum: “And what would you say to people who laugh?”

Ellie: “Stop it because everyone’s peed themselves.”

Mum: “Are we going to fight this epilepsy?”

Ellie: “No because it’s going to stay in my life forever."

Mum: “What are you going to say to people who have just found out they’ve got epilepsy?”

Ellie: “It’s ok because I've got epilepsy too.”

Speaking to Kaye Adams, proud mum Katie said despite often being knackered for 48 hours after a seizure, Ellie copes “brilliantly”.

“She is very curious about her condition so I record them [her seizures] for her sometimes...When she wakes up from having a seizure, she usually asks, “Mum, are you ok?”

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