Using Basketball to Fight Stigma and Empower Kids Living with Epilepsy

This month on Seizing Life® Mike Simmel shares his epilepsy journey, explains how his passion for basketball helped him navigate the impacts of epilepsy, and recounts how a personal experience with epilepsy stigma inspired him to help kids living with epilepsy and other challenges.

Mike Simmel experienced his first seizure at the age of two and spent the early part of his childhood trying to get control of his epilepsy while living with the impacts of seizures and medications. His life changed when his father gave him a basketball and Mike discovered an overwhelming passion for the sport. A basketball became Mike’s constant companion, and the skills that he developed through practicing and playing the game not only helped him to overcome his early physical limitations but also led Mike to college basketball, then 15 years playing with the Harlem Wizards, and finally to what would become his life’s work. Mike recounts his early years of epilepsy, his period of seizure freedom, and the return of his seizures while attending a basketball camp at the age of 16. Mike explains how that particular incident made a deep impression on him that led him to found the Bounce Out the Stigma program years later in order to empower kids living with epilepsy, autism, and other challenges

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CURE Epilepsy is the leading, non-governmental funder of epilepsy research. Since its inception in 1998, CURE Epilepsy has raised more than $100 million to fund epilepsy research and other initiatives that will lead the way to cures for the epilepsies. CURE Epilepsy funds grants for young and established investigators and to–date has awarded more than 300 cutting-edge projects in 18 countries around the world. Our mission is to fund breakthrough research that will transform the lives of people living with epilepsy as we lead the search for a cure.

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