With November being National Epilepsy Awareness Month, University of Guyana (UG) Medical School student Christopher Martin France, who was diagnosed with epilepsy last year, is using his experience and knowledge about the illness to raise awareness and reduce the stigma that surrounds it in Guyana.
Speaking to Stabroek News yesterday at the end of an epilepsy awareness walk that was organised by the Epileptic Foundation of Guyana, the UG medical students association, and the University of Guyana Students’ Society (UGSS), France, who organised the first walk and is an executive member of the Epilepsy Foundation that was founded last year, said that most of the motivation he has harnessed came from the fact that he has had firsthand experience with the illness and the fact that he is a medical student.
“The first time I had a seizure, that I was aware of, was last year March and I wasn’t even entirely sure that it was a seizure when it happened. I just know when I woke up I had urinated myself and my tongue was bitten,” France said. He recalled his first attack and explained that while he had a vague idea that he had had an epileptic attack,
