NYC Marathoner Achieves Seizure Control and Runs for Epilepsy Research

This week on Seizing Life® we speak with Peter Burpee who experienced absence epilepsy in childhood and tonic clonic seizures in his teen years, but has gained seizure control and will be running in the upcoming NYC Marathon to raise money for epilepsy research.

Peter Burpee initially experienced absence seizures around the age of 10, but gained seizure-freedom through medication. After living seizure-free for several years, his epilepsy returned in the form of tonic-clonic seizures, upending his life in his mid-teens. The rapid and severe onset of epilepsy at age 16 impacted Peter’s school and social life, making it impossible for him to participate in sports and requiring extra effort to maintain his academic studies. After a couple of years of frequent seizures, Peter was again able to gain seizure control following a second opinion and localization of his seizures. This seizure-freedom has allowed Peter to attend and graduate from college, and take his first career steps landing a job in Manhattan. Peter shares his journey, discusses how he maintains his seizure control via medication and a health-conscious lifestyle, and explains why it’s important to him to support epilepsy research by running his first NYC marathon as part of Team CURE Epilepsy in November.

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