ROB MURRAY: I’m speaking with Brooke Wilson. It’s nice to talk with you. You and I have actually known each other for a long time. We grew up in St. Albert and now you’re here in Banff and have started a family. It’s great to chat with you again.

BROOKE WILSON: Thank you so much for having me.

RM:  Family is a big part of the reason we’re chatting today. Tell us a little bit about your son, Jack.

BW: Jack is a fraternal twin and at five months he started having seizures. We’re lucky to live very close to the Alberta Children’s Hospital. He’s now almost eight and he has a rare form of epilepsy from a brain malformation. He’s had three extensive brain surgeries and they’ve actually disconnected the entire hemisphere of the right side of his brain.

RM: It must be quite a challenging situation to work through as a parent.

BW: To say the least. Yes, extremely challenging on every level.

RM: What’s day to day care like?

BW: He does pretty well. He just had his most recent surgery and they disconnected the motor cortex. He’s hemiplegic, meaning that he’s very weak on the left side of his body because they operated on the right side of the brain. He works really hard to do daily tasks, to walk, he has a bit of a limp, he’s quite speech delayed, but we have an amazing support system in Banff. He has an aide at school full time and we really are so lucky to have the resources we do.

RM: He’s going to school in Banff?

BW: You betcha. He’s quite popular in his class, actually.

RM: You’re working with Banff Elementary on a project for a big day around epilepsy this Friday?

BW: My goal was to raise awareness and to have everybody participate in what’s called Purple Day for Epilepsy Awareness. I made a video with my epilepsy community. We put it together on YouTube and the school is going to participate. We’re going to have everybody wear purple and they’re all going to watch the video and answer questions in the classrooms.

RM: Is there a big community in this area around this?

BW: No, not really. I’m online a lot, Instagram I would say would be my biggest community, looking for other families that have similar difficulties. You just kind of grow your community of people who you cheer on, they cheer you on, they hope for Jack and we hope for their kids. It’s actually really incredible. I have a community from all over the world.

RM: I’d imagine that a lot of his fellow students are learning a lot about epilepsy through him being in their class?

BW: Yes, and I’m sort of an open book. I found that it has worked in our favour to share Jack’s story. Every year prior to COVID I was able to go into the classroom and give a little presentation about Jack and tell the kids what he’s been through. I feel like knowledge is power and kids learn compassion, and it’s not like “Oh, that’s weird that he doesn’t talk” or “That’s weird that he does this.” Instead it’s like “Oh gosh, Jack is so brave. He’s had his brain cut into, he can do this.” Kids are naturally so curious, and I feel like educating them has worked in our favour. They all have learned so much about him.

RM: You posted the video a few days ago and it already has a few hundred views. Are you hoping to spread this far and wide?

BW: Definitely. I mean, as his mother, I’m his biggest advocate and it’s my goal just to spread awareness. More people live with epilepsy than autism, Parkinson’s, and multiple sclerosis and cerebral palsy combined, if you can believe it. 55 million people live around the world with epilepsy, which is really astronomical.