Meet Jasper - stroke survivor and epilepsy warrior

Loving Mum Caite, who is a nurse,  says, “For our family, we had the shock of a stroke and during Jasper’s recovery we noticed he was doing unusual things (lip smacking, repetitive movements, and staring while not responding). So then to learn that he was now having seizures, we felt very useless. We kept worrying that the seizures would cause more brain damage. It was a lot for a young family and as young parents to process at the time.”

The Rolfe family are great advocates for epilepsy awareness. Not only has Jasper been impacted by epilepsy, but his father, David also lives with the condition.

“Epilepsy awareness month is always important to us as it allows us as a family to educate our friends and family. It allows us to teach people about epilepsy and seizure first aid and encourage people to donate in support. It’s our chance to really raise awareness of epilepsy amongst our community,” says Caite.

Stroke is just one of the causes that can lead to a person developing epilepsy. According to the Stroke Association, for adults newly diagnosed with epilepsy, stroke is the cause around 10% of the time. You can learn more about the causes of epilepsy here. To learn more about seizure and seizure first aid, please visit here.

Every 33 minutes an Australian is diagnosed with epilepsy- turning their life upside down. March is national epilepsy awareness month and @EpilepsyQueensland (FB/LinkedIn) @epilepsyqld (Insta) in conjunction with affiliate epilepsy organisations across the nation are encouraging all Australians to #MakeMarchPurple in support of the 250,000 Australians living with the common neurological condition. 

You can find out more about the campaign at: https://bit.ly/MakeMarchPurple