Family's Purple patch is a positive
It has been a positive year for the Westbrook family since the Kalgoorlie Miner last caught up with them on Epilepsy Action Australia's Purple Day.
The family's special circumstances - they all have the condition - mean the worldwide awareness day is a time for them to reflect.
Jordan Westbrook, 18, is going for his driver's licence in just over two weeks, after his neurologist deemed his epilepsy inactive.
After a seizure-free stint of three months without medication or testing and then a further year without any seizures, Jordan's mother Jenny said he had been more patient than most to get his keys to freedom.
"So the neurologist has signed off on him, which is exciting for Jordan," Mrs Westbrook said.
"So long as he maintains a healthy lifestyle, doesn't go on benders or take drugs, it means he could fulfil his dream one day of going into the army or becoming a butcher, as he's currently doing his apprenticeship."
Like any mother, she was nervous for her son to start driving but had become more relaxed after his first week with L-plates.
Mrs Westwood said Mikayla, 17, Olivia, 15 and Brenden's, 21, conditions were also improving, largely because they got in contact with Epilepsy Action Australia.
"They give people freedom to understand what they or their child is suffering from," she said, adding it helped Mikayla through one of the worst stages of her condition.
"She used to have 10 seizures a day, called tonic colonics.
"Or cluster seizures, where you don't think they're going to stop - and they're horrible to witness and go through.
"We didn't know there was a drug out there called Midazolam that you could administer at the onset and stop it from causing the tonic colonic."
Appearing fairly calm, Mrs Westbrook said she was not always so collected and panic would take over when she saw her daughter unconscious.
Contacting the Epilepsy Action also led her mother, who lives in Norseman, finding better care.
Epilepsy is the world's most common serious brain condition, currently affecting about 250,000 Australians.
Purple Day was started by a nine-year-old girl in 2008 and embraced by Epilepsy Action Australia, a national provider of education and support services for people with epilepsy.
Despite the often daily challenges, Mrs Westbrook said they considered themselves a pretty normal family. "You just have to spend some time in Princess Margaret Hospital and you realise how lucky you are," she said.
She said testing showed there was no genetic link to explain why they all have the condition.
Mrs Westbrook developed epilepsy from a car accident when she was six years old; her children developed it either from birth complications or an accident, and her mother developed it after a mid-age stroke.
To support Purple Day, visit a Telstra Shop or a Dick Smith outlet to purchase purple merchandise.
