November is National Epilepsy Month. African Americans comprise 12% or
350,000 of the more than 3 million Americans living with epilepsy, a
medical condition characterized by two or more unprovoked seizures.
One in ten African-Americans lives with epilepsy. African-Americans
living with epilepsy are more likely to go undiagnosed, experience
disparity in medical treatment, have limited access to epilepsy
resources and remain in isolation stigmatized by public misperception
about epilepsy.
Please consider scheduling an interview with Veronica Crowe, an
African American Epilepsy Advocate who travels the country with the
hope of inspiring others to seek the best care possible and live
successfully with epilepsy. She has completed college, achieved a
career dream of working in a law firm, lives in her own apartment and
is planning a trip abroad.
people know someone with epilepsy, yet few know how to help someone
with epilepsy or how to help someone having a seizure. Common
misperceptions that seizures are “fits”, and that you must hold down a
person having a seizure and place a spoon in their mouth so they don’t
swallow their tongue are harmful stereotypes that cause fear and
stigmatize the condition.
Veronica and her doctor, Dr. Robert Leroy, Medical City, are available
for interviews to help educate your listeners about epilepsy and
epilepsy resources including Epilepsy Advocate —a community of people
who share their epilepsy challenges and successes so that more people
are empowered to seek medical care with a goal of achieving seizure
freedom with minimal side effects.
We will contact your office to confirm receipt of this correspondence
and follow-up on the interview request. If you have any questions or
need additional information in the interim, please reply via email to
heathgrouppr@gmail.com or call me on my mobile phone at 708.439.0326.
Attached is the About Epilepsy fact sheet. For more information on
epilepsy and the Epilepsy Advocate visit www.epilepsy-advocate.com.
