Epilepsy Queensland turns 40!

Last night, I missed out on my favourite shows; but I missed them for a good reason. I was at the celebrations of Epilepsy Queensland's 40th Anniversary at Queensland's Parliament House Annex on Alice Street in the city. It was a lovely evening of beautiful nibblie food, drinks and great company of other people with this - at times - debilitating condition. I talked to people who were either suffering or handling their Epilepsy. And a professional photographer went around and took photos of everyone.

We soon had the AGM and it only lasted around half an hour and the awards ceremony was on then. Many people had raise either money or awareness in their community about Epilepsy. And we had two young girl under the age of 15 who had brought the awareness into not only their communities, but their schools as well; so that the stigma was quickly disappearing.
But it was the person who was on the stage before them who made the biggest impression on us all. Wally 'The King' Lewis took to the stage and talked about his experience with the condition and how he was ashamed of it; scared that nobody would understand him once they knew he had it. He thought that he was protecting himself. But it was the very public on-air sports report that made it too clear to him that he couldn't hide anymore and he had to do something about it. Life has become a lot easier for Wally Lewis and he says that he wants to talk to more people and meet more people about this condition. And last night, he announced that he is going to be Epilepsy Queensland's next patron. This is a wonderful thing.
After the rest of the awards were handed out, he stayed long enough to sign the books that anyone had bought there, photographs with people who wanted to have them and he even signed the back of painting that had been auctioned off during the night. I got him to sign my folder from the night (as I couldn't afford to purchase his book from there) and Mum took a photo of us together.

It was a lovely night of great food, celebrities and class. We even got to take home a little tea-candle with the symbol of Epilepsy Queensland on it - the flame - to represent people coming out of the shadows.