On Helplines Awareness Day (23 February 2024), Caroline shares how Epilepsy Scotland’s freephone and confidential Helpline has helped her after being recently diagnosed with epilepsy.

I collapsed from a tonic-clonic seizure on Paisley Road West on 12 September 2023.

I was admitted to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital twice. On the second time I was admitted a few days after my original seizure, I was kept in for almost two weeks.

It was the experience from hell! I was in four different wards and five different rooms. Passed around the hospital like an unwanted parcel.

A few days after I had been in the hospital, completely fed up and frustrated that I was getting nowhere trying to get any answers, my mum told me that she had come across the Epilepsy Scotland website and it was very good.

Epilepsy Scotland’s Helpline

I found the Epilepsy Scotland website and I found their Helpline number. They have helped me through the darkness since I collapsed with a five-minute seizure and was unconscious for 30 minutes.

I am still recovering from my injuries over four months later.

Their Helpline is absolutely amazing! It is thanks to the Helpline that I am learning to cope.

I was only diagnosed with epilepsy in December 2023. It was thanks to the Helpline I knew what to ask the doctors during my stay in the hospital and to ask the neurologist at my first appointment at the first seizure clinic.

It does not matter how frantic or stressed I have been since all this happened, your Helpline has been with me every step of the way.

To me, they have been and always will be my lifeline to help me navigate my different path in life. A path that led to epilepsy.

I honestly do not know what I would have done over the past few months without the help, support, kindness, and compassion of their Helpline team. The Epilepsy Scotland Helpline is absolutely amazing.

Our freephone Helpline is open Monday to Friday between 10am and 4.30pm. Call us on 0808 800 2200 or email contact@epilepsyscotland.org.uk