| Famous People With Epilepsy |
Alfred Nobel, Swedish Chemist (1833 - 1896)
• 'Nobel was subject to migraine, and to convulsions from infancy.'
• The great 20th century American epileptologist William Gordon Lennox thought so
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Gaius Julius Caesar
• The assumption that Caesar suffered from epilepsy is backed by several sources dating back to Roman times
• The Roman authors already link Caesar's epilepsy to cerebral sclerosis, while others attribute it to alcohol.
• This would suggest that in ancient Rome a distinction was already being made between the 'genuine falling sickness' and a symptomatic type of epilepsy.
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Napoleon Bonaparte, French Emperor (1769 - 1821)
• The following anecdote is taken from one of Napoleon's biographies which was published as early as 1838: 'From his youth, he had epileptic fits. When he was at school in Paris, he had to eat on his knees as a punishment for insubordination, but he had such a huge seizure that they had to let him off.'
Gaius Julius Caesar – Roman statesman
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Lord Byron-English poet
• In his aphorism Self-flight, Nietzsche writes: 'Consider that four of the men who were most thirsty for action in all history were epileptics (namely Alexander, Caesar, Mohammed and Napoleon), and that Byron was also subject to this infliction.
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Vincent van Gogh – Dutch painter
• There is every reason to believe that van Gogh suffered from a focal epilepsy accompanied by simple focal and complex focal seizures
• Van Gogh did not suffer from epileptic seizures until the last two years of his life, in what was remarkably his most artistically creative phase
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Fyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoyevsky, Russian Writer (1821 - 1881)
• Fyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoyevsky is without doubt the most well-known of all famous people who had epilepsy
• Dostoyevsky used his own illness and the suffering that went with it as a theme in his writing.
• Prince Myshkin in the novel 'The Idiot'. This character also reveals most about Dostoyevsky's own illness.
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Gustave Flaubert, French Writer (1821 - 1880)
• Flaubert's first epileptic seizures are reported to have taken place in the years 1843/44, when Flaubert was 22
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Pious IX., Pope (1792 - 1878)
• Longest papacy
• In his youth, Pious IX had a sickly constitution and suffered epileptic seizures
Saint Paul-Apostle
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Saint Paul-Apostle
• In old Ireland, epilepsy was known as 'Saint Paul's disease'. The name points to the centuries-old assumption that the apostle suffered from epilepsy.
• 'But to keep me from being puffed up with pride... I was given a painful physical ailment, which acts as Satan's messenger to beat me and keep me from being proud.' (2 Corinthians, 12,7).
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20th Century celebrities with epilepsy
• Modern writers who had epilepsy include: Dame Agatha Christie, the leading British writer of mystery novels, and Truman Capote, American author of In Cold Blood and Breakfast at Tiffany's.
• Modern Actors with Epilepsy
include Richard Burton, Michael Wilding, Margaux Hemingway and Danny Glover.
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Paul Wade
• Former Captain of the Socceroos, Media Commentator and currently runs the Paul Wade National Soccer School.
• Paul has epilepsy
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Rachel Neill
• Talented young artist will be displaying her multimedia and sound installation Electrical Discharge inspired by her experiences of tonic clonic seizures
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Jonty Rhodes - cricketer
• Jonty made international headlines when he dived to hit the stumps and run out Pakistan batsman Inzamam Ul-Haq in the 1992 World Cup.
• Following his heroic feat he revealed in an interview that he had epilepsy.
• Since then he has worked closely with Epilepsy South Africa in promoting and publicizing the plight of people with epilepsy.
• According to Epilepsy South Africa's National Director, Kathryn Pahl, "Jonty is one of the most prominent figures world wide who openly acknowledges his epilepsy. He has helped us tremendously by creating a public profile for epilepsy, as well as by acting as a role model to which youngsters with epilepsy can aspire." |
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