- I'm not sick when I run.
Like, I'm really, I'm just so normal.
You wouldn't think someone who goes unconscious like
14 times a day runs.
Like, you just wouldn't put it that way.
My name is Katie Cooke, I'm 20 years old;
I live in Dublin, Ireland, and I love running.
I was diagnosed with two types of epilepsy when I
was nine years old.
One of which, which is frontal lobe epilepsy.
So at the moment I have 14 seizures in a 24 hour period.
They used to be 16, 17 so we're coming down slightly,
which is woo.
- [Narrator] You OK?
- I'm fine.
(laughing)
I'm fine.
I was getting really bad dizziness from my medicine.
So, we went into the hospital and they loaded me,
which is a term for epileptics when you're going on like
a new medicine, and I didn't wake up until six days later.
I was immobile for about (mumbles) of two years.
I moved from being in a wheelchair to being in a
Zimmer frame.
When I gradually started getting back into running,
it kind of gave me this newfound energy, I don't know why.
I put on my running boots and started running.
I feel like, it's so cliche, but you kind of feel like
on top of the world, that you could do anything.
Like, I don't feel sick anymore, until I have a seizure,
obviously.
Then I'm back down.
- [Narrator] You alright?
- It's an amazing feeling, like all the endorphins
like pulsing through your body, it's great.
It's honestly, like, amazing.
I train alone for most of my runs, like, during the week,
however, I do have a pal for my races,
like official races, which is Dr. Colin Doherty.
- So, I have two roles.
So first of all I'm her doctor, the other role I play,
which is to be her partner in running.
My job is to make sure that when Katie has a seizure,
if she's running, that nobody carts her off the course.
Oh, Katie's having a seizure.
So, before I knew Katie she would run races,
and if they were in public people would,
you know, quite reasonably, insist that she be carried off
the course, much to her displeasure.
So, my job is to say no.
Announce that I am her doctor and that she's fine, she'll recover,
and then she gets up and she runs.
- I don't let anything really get in the way of
living life at all.
I just don't think it's the way to go.
I suppose, yeah, I don't let epilepsy get in the way
at all.