FORMER Highworth mayor Steve Weisinger has spoken of his battle with epilepsy, having been diagnosed with the condition as a baby.

Dad-of-two Steve, 48, had his first epileptic seizure at the age of 10 months old and said the diagnosis came as a huge shock to his parents at the time.

“Apparently I started to choke and I was rushed in to hospital where they did various tests on me,” he said.

Throughout his childhood, Steve suffered a number of seizures up until the age of six, when they appeared to stop. However, when he was 11 and in his final year at primary school, he was struck down by a major fit.

He said: “I had a huge fit in the lunch room – I remember going up to collect my food from the dinnerladies, but I can’t remember getting back to my table. I was carried out by one of the teachers and I was off school for a month.

“I had a number of tests and was put back on medication.”

When he reached the age of 17, Steve was able to apply for a driving licence because he had been seizure-free for more than three years. He passed his driving test at the age of 18, but 20 years after his last seizure, he said the condition “came back to haunt me”.

“I remember I was working in the financial services market, but I can’t remember what I was doing when I had the fit,” he said.

Steve eventually went to Harley Street in London where he underwent MRI scans and was later told by his consultant that no medication would control his epilepsy due to where the scar was on his brain, which was causing him to fit.

In 2006, at the age of 43, Steve underwent an operation at the Neurology and Neurosurgery Hospital in London to remove the left temporal lobe of his brain.

He said: “The only time I felt nervous was as I was going on to the operating theatre.

“I had been told there was a 70 per cent chance of it being a success, a one per cent chance that something could go drastically wrong, and a 29 per cent chance of things being slightly worse.

“But I have completely recovered, I haven’t had a fit since, I’ve got my driving licence back and my life has completely changed – I no longer have to depend on public transport, my children feel far more relaxed with me and it shouldn’t ever come back.”

“It’s nice to be able to go and help others who have been through or are going through what I have been through,” he said.

“I really appreciate what the Rotary Club has done, so much so that I joined the club and have now become a Rotarian myself.”

* This week is National Epilepsy Awareness Week. The Swindon Epilepsy Support Group will hold an information and awareness stall at the Brunel Shopping Centre on Saturday from 9am.

For more information contact Paul Parfrey on 07929725708.