Stop the presses! Epilepsy Ontario is now running a monthly column on the Huffington Post Canada’s website focusing on issues surrounding seizure disorders as well as providing analysis from experts and stories from people of living with the neurological condition and their families.
The first column appeared Jan. 24 and was written by Gena Meldazy, an Epilepsy Ontario volunteer who came up with the idea to raise the profile of epilepsy through a regular column on the popular news website.
“I’m a firm believer that global epilepsy awareness can really be leveraged through the popular press — and the popular press can play a really important role in helping organizations get that message out,” she says.
“We want to bring epilepsy and neurological conditions into a space where we can talk about it in a common language.”
Meldazy had contacted Huffington Post Canada in October, and editors were open to the idea of a regular column dedicated to epilepsy issues.
The maiden column, Undiagnosed Epilepsy Made People Think I Was Acting Out, is Meldazy’s first-hand account of growing up with seizures. It’s also about the lack of information available for people with seizure disorders in the 1990s, how that contributed to her personal awareness of seizures and epilepsy, and why knowledge sharing is important.
Meldazy, whose background is in marketing and communications, has been volunteering with Epilepsy Ontario for about a year. She has focused on helping the organization with its communications agendas and saw the Huffington Post as an excellent channel to bring epilepsy awareness to a larger audience.
A column on the Huffington Post Canada’s website seemed like the perfect way to accomplish her goal on two fronts: the website is widely read and no one is writing a column focused on raising epilepsy awareness.
In fact, Meldazy says she’s not aware of any mainstream news media — online or print — that has a regular feature about epilepsy.
“There’s a sense of excitement on our end that this may be a first,” Meldazy says, adding that often when epilepsy is mentioned in mainstream media the messages contain inaccurate information.
“So, this is a really amazing opportunity to bring trusted experts and those knowledgeable sources on the topic to challenge the myths and stigma that affects day-to-day perceptions of what (epilepsy) is.”
Writer: Deron Hamel
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