Introducing Ashleigh
Monday, 19 February 2018
Ashleigh Bull is 18 years old. She was diagnosed with epilepsy initially at 11.5 months old. For much of Ashleigh's life her epilepsy has been kept manageable by medication with periods of time where medication needed to be adjusted to get to a point of functionality again and to reduce the impact on Ashleigh's quality of life. However, Ashleigh's seizures have never been fully under control with her having from 2 - 15 seizures every night and it has always been known that the seizures could increase in frequency and more significantly, severity. The specialist had always warned us to expect an increase with her seizures during puberty.
In October 2016 Ashleigh started the Ketogenic Diet as therapy for her epilepsy and this has helped with her quality of life, as she recovers from her seizures more quickly and they have reduced in intensity on a regular basis. Ashleigh has been able to return to playing sport, she tried school in 2017 but she was unable to manage this in a sustainable way, and she now is able to work at Kuri where she is an assistant dog groomer. On Sat 17th of Jan she leaves for Cleveland for treatment.
"The surgery can happen with the ultimate aim of Ashleigh being seizure free where she can live a full and functional life." - Fiona Ward, Ashleigh's mum.
