I was told my seizure was so severe, that the doctors told my parents that there was a high possibility that I would have brain damage. (So much for faith!) The last thing I remember was in my local hospital.

After this I was rushed to Crumlin hospital for children, Dublin; this was the nearest hospital with a neurologist. The doctors were so puzzled as to what was wrong with me. The doctor said I had deteriorated so quickly (I was on life support within fours day of the last seizure) that he didn't expect me to live through the week.

I was bed ridden for a couple of months, and my body lost all muscle and all my strength was drained of me, (so they thought, some times I would arch my back and try to touch my heels off the back of my head, this would have severed my spine, so it took four grown men 20 minutes to hold me - 14yrs, 5foot 6stone(100lbs) From being bed ridden I caught pneumonia 5 or six times.

They tested me for everything that they could think of, but every test came back negative, there was a CJD epidemic in Ireland around this time, and the doctors, asked the leading CJD specialist to come down by private helicopter from Scotland (I think) to see if I had it..... he said it wasn't. I had many lumber punctures, cat-scans, blood test sent by courier to Dubai where a conference of international neurologist. The reason the doctors didn't find the usual clues as to my illness is because (this is what they think) the swelling on my brain happened in the center of my brain. This is maybe why every CAT scan didn't show the telltale signs.

According to my parents, during my sickness, I did not recognize people, including my mother, I was talking at the beginning but my sentences made no sense, and slowly I lost my speech. Then 7 months later I eventually got better, I regained my speech on my brother's birthday, and I haven't looked back since.