By Deron Hamel
Heather Beckett says the person she draws inspiration from most is award-winning Australian film and stage actor Hugo Weaving. Heather, like Weaving, is living with epilepsy and both have overcome many obstacles in their pursuit of success.
A recent graduate of the child and youth worker program at Sault College, Heather, 21, will be working towards her diploma in health care office administration at Durham College, starting in September.
Heather says although her condition has prevented her from pursuing her childhood dream of joining the military to help children living in poverty-stricken countries, she can still accomplish part of that dream as a child and youth worker. For this, she turns to Weaving for inspiration.
“By seeing (his) successes, I realize that there are ways I can achieve my dream,” she says. “I became a child and youth worker, and through attaining this office administration diploma, I can help in even more ways.”
Heather finds many parallels between her and Weaving. Both were living with their families during their teen years when they developed epilepsy; both do not drive because of their condition; and both have worked hard to not let epilepsy impede their ambitions.
She looks to how Weaving’s life has changed since the actor, now 56, was 40.
“Weaving has shared that since his first seizure at 13, he has experienced about one grand-mal (tonic-clonic) seizure a year,” Heather notes. “He also shared that he has been seizure- and medication-free since age 40. This gives me hope that one day I, too, can grow out of my seizures, as we both developed epilepsy in our teens.”
Through obtaining her health care office administration diploma, Heather says she hopes to make a difference in many people’s lives.
“I will have opportunities to work in hospitals, children’s mental health centres, residential treatment centres, youth detention centres and many other specialized clinics,” she says. “In this new direction, I will be able to help children and youth, while finding a way around the barriers that have emerged since being diagnosed with epilepsy.”
Heather is one of the recipients of this year’s Osler Epilepsy Scholarship. The scholarship, formerly called the OBCL Epilepsy Scholarship, is being offered to four students this year. Aside from the name change, the scholarship committee also decided to up the award amount from $1,000 to $1,500.
Osler Epilepsy Scholarships are awarded each year to exceptional students who have confronted and overcome remarkable barriers in their academic and personal lives due to their epilepsy.
Applicants also submit a 600- to 900-word essay, about a famous person who has epilepsy and what that person’s life means to them.
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