Lee-Anne McHarry - London

 

"Hello, I am Lee-Anne McHarry and I am a Paediatric Dietitian who specialised in the ketogenic diet at St George's Hospital, London where I had the privilege of being the first funded Daisy Garland Ketogenic Dietitian treating children with complex epilepsy on the ketogenic diet. My passion for the diet grew quickly and the children and their dedicated parents made my job as so much easier and extremely rewarding.  Seeing how the ketogenic diet can change the lives of children had a real impact on me. Many of the children I worked with struggled immensely, some having 100+ seizures a day and without the diet would not have reached their full potential.   The diet works at various levels for different children and although they may not become completely seizure free, the results their parents and I witnessed made it worthwhile to continue with the diet. It is truly amazing when diet therapy can help change a child from one who lays down all day, barely able to move, to one who is rolling, making purposeful and intentional movements and laughing.

I returned to Cape Town, South Africa in January 2008 with the same drive and passion to bring the ketogenic diet to the forefront with neurologists and paediatricians who care for children with epilepsy. I have set up "Keto Kids" a Ketogenic Diet Centre in Cape Town and hope to support and encourage children and their families on their ketogenic diet journey. I offer training to dietitians in South Africa who would want to work on the ketogenic diet but have never done so before. I have a degree in biochemistry and dietetics and find the two complement each other greatly. I fine tune the ketogenic diet by monitoring blood ketone levels alongside blood glucose levels and am pleased to say that we have had many success stories.

I am grateful to Sara and David and all at The Daisy Garland for their ongoing encouragement and support. Because of their dedication, passion and hard work the diet has reached South Africa!"