On Tuesday March 30th, 2010 for the occasion of Epilepsy awareness month, Epilepsy Cure Initiative (ECI) traveled to Ottawa and paid a visit to MP Mr Gerard Kennedy (Parkdale-High Park) to discuss epilepsy matters in his Ottawa office in the Confederation Building. Among our discussions was the urgency that was needed on the National level to further efforts for innovative epilepsy research toward finding a cure and the development of new therapies that would offer better seizure control with fewer side effects.
After our meeting we proceeded to the House of Commons in Centre Block (Parliament Hill) to watch from the member's gallery while Mr. Kennedy made his members statement about epilepsy.
Madam Speaker, March is Epilepsy Awareness Month in Canada.
Epilepsy is not well understood despite afflicting 300,000 Canadians. The public's lack of knowledge creates fear, discrimination, and stigma surrounding those with this condition.
Each day 42 of our fellow Canadians learn they have epilepsy; 60% of them will be either young children or senior citizens. They face no formalized diagnosis system.
There is a need for an effective and improved means of control and a need for accurate diagnoses. They face the prospect of having behaviour and emotional issues simply from a condition that is so little understood. One-third of people with epilepsy do not yet have an effective treatment.
I invite my colleagues to join with my constituents Margaret Maye, Gary Neumann, and their son Thomas of Epilepsy Cure Initiative, to help give thousands of Canadians control back over their lives.
