Gabriel was diagnosed with epilepsy when he was eighteen months.  Over the next few months his seizures got progressively worse resulting in long hospital admissions and a cocktail of drugs.   Every drug brought a new seizure type.  The drugs were increased and changed but still the seizures continued.  The first drug had made Gabriel sleepy, but the new one made him manic!  At his point he was averaging between twenty and fifty seizures a month.

After discussing yet another drug change with our neurologist I turned to the internet to do some research.  That's when I found The Daisy Garland.  Daisy's legacy of hope touched my heart.  

I could not believe my luck when I discovered that there was a Daisy Garland Ketogenic Dietitian at our local hospital - I had found Willy Wonka's Golden Ticket!  

Gabriel started the ketogenic diet when he was three-and-a-half years-old. I was amazed at how quickly he got into the rhythm of it all not to mention his utter joy at being allowed to eat little packs of butter with no bread!  A few days later we went to see Disney on Ice and the little boy that pre-diet couldn't sit still, sat glued to his chair munching keto friendly snacks completely mesmerised. That was the moment we knew we were doing the right thing.  

The severity and frequency of Gabriel's seizures reduced.  His behaviour improved, he became much calmer and his big brother finally had a playmate!

Things went from strength to strength in fact the diet worked so well that eighteen months after starting the diet Gabriel was seizure-free and drug free and we weaned the diet.  

His mind was clearer, his learning curve increased and his behaviour was  that of any other boisterous six year-old boy - a million miles from the frightened, anxious, aggressive, confused boy we presented to our Daisy Dietitian back in 2009 when we started our keto journey.  

The little boy with no coordination was able to play little league baseball, hop, skip and run around with his classmates.  He was able to eat school dinners, had playdates and quickly became an expert in traversing the monkey bars.  The boy that wouldn't sleep, was tucked up soundly every night, so he could  be ready to learn at school the next day.  The boy with little short term memory learned his lines for his first proper play.  Gabriel is our miracle and our inspiration.

Ten years on and Gabriel remains seizure-free. The Daisy Garland made our keto journey possible.  They gave us our son back and have transformed our lives.  Ten years post diet and living on the other side of the world it still makes me smile when Sara checks in on Gabriel.  Their support aways there and it's a great comfort.

The Daisy Garland gave us hope when we needed it most, and ultimately gave us our funny, charming, confident, crazy boy back. There are no words to describe how thankful we are for this amazing charity, they changed all of our lives.