Miscellaneous
December's bonus episode comes a little late because I wanted you to join me on my New Year walk. Listen to me ramble as I ramble about 2020 and what is to come.Plus, as a $10 and above Patron, you get a bonus bonus - listen to the letter I sent to Race To The Stones.The Letter:Hi All,Thank you for the extra information on the medical team and locations throughout the course. All information helps me complete a thorough personal risk assessment. Thank you, also, for engaging in a conversation about epilepsy. It is especially prevalent today as it is in fact International Epilepsy Awareness Day! There are a few more epilepsy awareness initiatives later in the year before the Race to the Stones event that I would love to discuss with the marketing team to see if there is any link up we could do between ourselves and Young Epilepsy (cc'd), who I will be raising money for.When it comes to helping encourage people with epilepsy to take part in your events, I'd like to take the opportunity to bring your attention to an aspect I could immediately help you improve on: the recommendation that "the safest way would be to do the event with a buddy who knows how to deal with the condition." It is (to be blunt) inappropriate for yourselves to be making what is essentially a care plan suggestion. This infers the need (or wish) for me to have a carer or extra support - which is a decision that lies with myself and my epilepsy team (including epilepsy nurse and neurologist). As it stands, we have all agreed quite happily that there is no need for such precaution. In 2017, I walked across Spain solo, I will be completing the majority of my training solo. From organisers' POV, as with all participants, I have signed a waiver that accepts full responsibility for any eventuality outside of the organisers' control. But I understand the natural inclination to make such comments, especially as representatives of such a large operation where you want to limit any risky circumstance you can! (I would guess that this suggestion also comes from a place of considering other participants.) It is something I have come across in organised events before, and I personally try not to take offence to it :) But it that kind of assumption that, unfortunately, causes a lot of people with epilepsy to hide their condition. The use of the phrase 'deal with' in particular is quite problematic as it suggests a burden. And I would be interested to know if a similar suggestion would be offered to other conditions, such as history of heart attack or diabetes?I will make a quick suggestion here that the most appropriate approach would be to ask the participant for more information.For example, asking if there is a care plan, doctors' advice, the type of epilepsy, seizures, the frequency, and triggers. Epilepsy is such a varied condition, and some aspects of it carry greater risk. Some seizures cause a person to lose consciousness, whilst some don’t. The more regular the seizures are, the higher the chance of a seizure at an inopportune moment etc.So as you can see, it is a complicated topic! And exactly why I will be working as closely as possible with organisations to raise awareness throughout the whole of my 30 at 30 challenge. I have started doing awareness sessions with local schools and companies, and this is something I can do for your team if you were really interested in becoming supportive of those with epilepsy.In the meantime, if anyone wants to know a little bit more, these are some good articles to start with:https://adventureuncovered.com/2019/02/11/seize-your-adventure/https://seizeyouradventure.com/learn-about-epilepsy/And of course do check out the articles and podcasts on my website. (This one in particular might be of interest to any ultrarunners among you!).Many thanks for your time so far and look forward to hearing from marketing,Fran Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.