Frome girl raises funds to help others with epilepsy

An eight-year-old girl from Frome has celebrated two years without a major seizure by running a lucky dip stall in Victoria Park to raise funds for an epilepsy charity.

Charlotte Hodge, who has epilepsy, organised the fundraising stall after deciding she wanted to help other people living with the condition.

The lucky dip was on Sunday 30th August, and raised over £300 for Young Epilepsy, which supports children and young people under 25 who have epilepsy and other conditions.

Charlotte’s mum Danielle said, “We wanted to celebrate the fact that she hadn’t had a seizure for the last two years. Charlotte came to me and said she wanted to raise money. We started looking through different charities and we saw Young Epilepsy, which I thought would work well because there are quite a few children in similar circumstances.”

Charlotte, a pupil at Hayesdown First School, was diagnosed with epilepsy at 10 months old after having a febrile convulsion. She has two types of seizures – absence seizures and focal seizures – and takes medication every day.

Danielle said her previous experience working with young adults with disabilities helped her recognise Charlotte’s first seizure.

“For four years I worked in a young adult disability setting and a few of them would have seizures,” she said. “It was only because I had worked with seizures before that I knew what it was.”

Danielle said Charlotte’s condition is now much better controlled.

“She’s absolutely fantastic and you probably wouldn’t even notice,” she said. “I think she’s still having the odd couple of kind of absence seizures where she stares off and is a little bit kind of not quite there for a few seconds, but compared to what it was, where we were having the ambulance come to school because it seemed to be every time she would go to school, it’s so much better.”

Charlotte said, “I wanted to raise money so I could make sure that other people with epilepsy could live happier lives and get help with their epilepsy.

“I don’t mind having epilepsy now, but when I was younger I had quite a lot of time off school which meant I missed out on fun things and making friends.”

The fundraising event also gave Charlotte and her family the chance to meet other people affected by epilepsy.

Danielle said, “At the fundraising event people came up to us in the park and said that someone they knew, or their mum, was epileptic, which was quite nice because you don’t really hear about it much.

“Having epilepsy has always been something we are very open about and something I don’t ever want Charlotte to feel like she has to hide because the chances are she will probably have it for life.”

To support Charlotte’s fundraising campaign visit https://www.justgiving.com/page/danielle-hodge-1#sharePage

Pictured: Charlotte and her brother Thomas