In 2001, Mr. Tom Smith, a Scottish International ; British & Irish Lions Rugby Player, was the guest of honour at a dinner in Hong Kong to raise funds for a Scottish Epilepsy charity of which he was Patron at that time.
Tom himself has Epilepsy
The purpose of the event was to help raise awareness of Epilepsy in the local community of Hong Kong and to help improve understanding of the condition. After months of investigation into the local support provided in HK and numerous discussions and visits with local support groups, Tom's sister-in-law, Claudia Schlesinger, identified the need to use Tom's role as patron of a Scottish Epilepsy charity and also the infrastructure that the Scottish Epilepsy charity had to help generate further awareness, funds and to fast track the set up of a local charity.
During Tom's visit to HK he was surprised to find that over *30,000 people in Hong Kong had Epilepsy and that at that time only one part-time group provided support to those affected by the condition. He was also surprised that insufficient bi-lingual support and counselling services existed in a city such as Hong Kong.
Some of the feedback that Tom received was in the form of a cry for help. There was an unmistakable need to let the public know what Epilepsy really is ; to make people aware that it is not something that should be hidden away. They discovered that the vast majority of the Hong Kong community had little knowledge about Epilepsy.
As a result of this and the astounding support that Tom received from the Hong Kong community with regards to the illness and the hunger for information about Epilepsy, he felt that the Hong Kong community could not be neglected.
Tom felt that, in Hong Kong,
- Anyone going through the trauma of having their first few seizures and did not know what to do, should have someone to ask.
- Anyone who, through Epilepsy has lost his or her job, driving licence or needed support dealing with negative discrimination should have someone to turn to.
- Families who wanted to know what their parents or children were going through should have someone to ask.
- Employers and teachers who wanted to know what to do when an employee or student had a seizure should have someone to teach them.
- He wanted to proactively raise awareness about Epilepsy to tell people that they could, like he, have their Epilepsy controlled by medication and enjoy a normal lifestyle.
Claudia Schlesinger together with the Director of the epilepsy organisation that Tom was Patron of in Scotland established Enlighten-Action for Epilepsy.
Tom remains the Founding Patron of Enlighten- Action for Epilepsy Hong Kong.
NOTE:
All funds raised by Enlighten Hong Kong are used solely for the benefit of families and those affected by epilepsy in Hong Kong.
Information retrieved at that time showed that it was estimated that approximately 30,000 people had epilepsy
