Mother creates organisation to help raise awareness around her daughter’s condition

Narcolepsy Awareness Kenya aims to create awareness around this sleep disorder, identifying and helping people who suffer from this condition.

It all started when Anne noticing strange behaviours in her daughter and her teachers told her she was falling asleep during class.

“I started observing my daughter’s unusual behaviours a few years ago and at the time, I did not really understand what they meant. It was strange because she was sleeping too much during the day and the teachers would call me many times during school hours and ask me questions about her falling asleep during class that I simply could not answer. That was when I went to the doctor to ask for advice and who then diagnosed her and said she was Narcoleptic. It is an embarrassing, life-impacting condition that affected my daughter so much that she had reached a point of wanting to commit suicide because she felt nobody could understand her. The level of stigmatization around the condition at school was high, yet she leads in her class with top grades, even though she often sleeps the whole of afternoon lessons”, the founder noted.

That’s when she realised there isn’t enough information about this disorder, as there was no such organisation in her country. “We need to create much greater awareness about the narcolepsy sleep disorder, and our movement that aims to inform and educate people about it in Kenya and Africa as a whole”, the mother stated.

Adapted from: https://bit.ly/2Le5Wpe

More info: http://narcolepsyafricafoundation.org/