A beautiful woman has shared her touching battle with epilepsy as she tries to create awareness for those suffering from it.
Kabemba Mwale
Kabemba Mwale is an epilepsy activist, she shares her story below:
“My name is Kabemba Mwale born 29th December 1982. I am the
last born in a family of 4 children. I had my 1st seizure in 1991 on the
29th August. After my second seizure on Christmas Eve ,that same year,
my parents then advised the medical staff to find out why I was having
more seizures.
This was at the age of 9 and I was schooling at LICEF. I then
started going for hospital reviews which in a way affected my school
attendance as I would be absent on those review days. As I grew I
continued experiencing seizures though the advantage I had was that I
could tell as I would have an aura before a convulsion. I continued to
take my medication as prescribed even though I would fit at times. As I
approached my late teen years I went into a depression unknowingly.
The depression was catalysed by the nature of an antiepileptic drug as it is a suppressant and helps you to rest.
Some family members were not comfortable to have a relative
with epilepsy. Some of my grannies also took me to witch doctors as they
believed epilepsy was witchcraft. But because of my loving parents who
believed in God I was on conventional medication immediately I was
diagnosed epileptic. Fortunately in my case despite not knowing the
cause , epilepsy has not affected me mentally or physically.
In May 2016 I decided to open up and share my story with the
public. I did this by creating a Facebook page called EPILEPSY FORUM
WITH KABEMBA MWALE. This page received overwhelming response that
inspired me to encourage others. I therefore decided to take an extra
step to reach out through awareness advocacy counseling and epilepsy
management as I realised that they are so many people who have the
condition but are not aware that there is treatment.
On 25 October of 2016 the KABEMBA MWALE EPILEPSY FOUNDATION was
officially registered. My plight to the media is that they are able to
provide as much coverage to bring out this silent cause. I am glad to
mention that on the 14 January 2017 I will clock a good 4 years without
an attack. This is motivation for others and I am saying that it is
possible to lead a great and positive life even with epilepsy.”
No comments:
Post a Comment