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Irish model Kelly Horrigan opens up about her experience with epilepsy

Irish model Kelly Horrigan has opened up about her experience with epilepsy.

The Kildare native was diagnosed with epilepsy at the age of 16, after suffering multiple seizures.

In a candid video shared on Instagram, Kelly spoke about her experience ahead of epilepsy awareness day, which has been dubbed Purple Day, on March 25.

She captioned the post: “I wanted to share a video about my experience and some of the need-to-knows about epilepsy.”

“It’s such a common condition and people seem to think it’s quite rare – which couldn’t be further from the truth!”

“There are also many myths around the condition – some of which I’ve chatted about in this video!”

In the video, Kelly gave an insight into her life with epilepsy, saying: “After I was diagnosed, I honestly thought that was going to be it.”

“I really thought I was going to go on medication and everything was going to go back to the way it was before.”

“Unfortunately it’s just really not like that for a lot of people, it can be a very lengthly process of trial and error, trying different medications, different doses and for me it took about three years to get the dose right.”

“So for three years after I was diagnosed and the time leading up to that, I was having multiple seizures a week which was very exhausting physically and more so mentally to be honest.”

“I found it a really disheartening process.”

“One of the really big struggles that I had was the stress and anxiety that came with having epilepsy, so the constant fear of when is the next seizure going to be, where is it going to be, who is going to be there with you.”

“It turns into this big vicious cycle, you’re so worried about when the next seizure is going to be but then that worry stresses you out so much that it actually causes the seizures.”

The influencer continued: “I was very afraid to be alone, I was very scared to go to bed at night on my own so I used to leave my bedroom door open and then my mam and dad would leave their bedroom door open, and that just made me feel a little bit more comfortable.”

“Another thing I had was a little bell, now I was very lucky that I could actually feel my seizures coming on, and so I used to ring the bell when I had that little warning and my mam and dad or whoever could come up and sit with me while I was having the seizure.”

Kelly explained: “I’ll be seizure free 7 years in July which is amazing, so exciting.”

“I honestly believe i’ll never have a seizure again, I feel like that part of my life is a past life, it’s behind me.”

“I don’t have fears like I used to, like I used to be very afraid to go anywhere on my own whereas now, I’ve traveled abroad for weeks at a time on my own.”

“I thought I might never drive because obviously you have to be seizure free for a year to drive and I honestly thought I’d never drive, and I’ve been driving for I think 5 years.”

Speaking to others who have been diagnosed with epilepsy, Kelly reassured them: “If you’re at the stage where you’re really struggling, you’re at that disheartening stage, it can get better… just push through, I know it’s awful but you’ll get there.”

The Irish model is raising awareness for epilepsy by shutting down any misconceptions about the condition, to help people get a better understanding of it.

Kelly is also hosting a giveaway on her Instagram to raise funds and awareness for Epilepsy Ireland.

Instructions on how to enter her giveaway can be found here.

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