By DANI ROTHWELL
TANIA Cardell is continuing her journey in raising awareness for SUDEP – sudden unexpected death in epilepsy – after her son Brian Wight died from the condition almost two years ago.
SUDEP wasn’t something Tania had heard of until she was told it was the cause of her son’s death.
Her drive to raise awareness and funds for research comes from this moment.
“It’s about telling other people, not to scare them, but that it’s a possibility.
“People need to understand that it can be a death sentence,” Tania said.
“As a mum, every day is still hard. It still seems like he’s going to walk through the door.”
On the first anniversary on his death, Brian’s family held a car rally which raised more than $4000 and this year is running a trivia night.
The whole family is helping to promote the event, asking for donations from local businesses and organising the night.
Dozens of local businesses, including Geelong and West Coast Eagles AFL teams, Caldermeade Farm and several local IGA supermarkets, have donated money and items for the raffle.
“Not a lot of people talk about him anymore – that gets me down sometimes.
“What I have to focus on, is when we have nights like this, it’s the most uplifting feeling,” she said.
“I have to draw strength from these events. Of course they think about him. He’s impacted all of their lives. We’re raising awareness.”
Tania plans for there to be an annual trivia night to continually raise awareness and funds.
“Maybe in 10 years’ time the research centre will be able to call me and tell me ‘this is what’s happened’,” she said.
The trivia night is on 4 July from 7pm. Entry is $15 per person, with $1 raffle tickets being sold as well. Any money raised will be donated to SUDEP Research.
