Volunteer Spotlight: Mehrshad Hanafimosalman
In summer 2020, my sister Melody was diagnosed with frontal lobe epilepsy characterized by focal seizures just a month before turning 4 years old. After each seizure, she would lift her head, look at me and ask: “what is happening to me?”
I did not have answers but a broken heart. Fortunately, her condition has been controlled by antiepileptic drugs thanks to the hard work of neurologists at the Montreal Children Hospital. However, the cause of her epilepsy remains unknown to this day and her seizures reoccur every few months, forcing her doctors to increase the dosage or administer other types of drugs.
Since this event changed our lives and opened my eyes to the challenges faced by epilepsy patients, I hoped to contribute to the advancement of epilepsy research and improve the quality of life of the innocent kids who did not deserve having this condition.
Today, as a medical student at McGill University, I assist a team of pediatric neurosurgeons in their research that aims to find treatments for drug-resistant epilepsy, and I have the honour of helping Epilepsy Canada achieve its goal of increasing the public’s awareness and knowledge of epilepsy by writing epilepsy research news articles.
The courage of those living with epilepsy,
inspires us and fuels our journey.
Your gift will help us to continue on the road toward an epilepsy cure.