A MOTHER have told of her hopes that funds can be raised for a seizure-alert dog to help her teenage son left wheelchair bound by a mystery illness.
Joseph Forbes suffers seizures on a daily basis, lasting anything from five minutes to 23 hours, since taking ill in March 2014.
The 19-year-old chef from the Ardoyne area of north Belfast had a promising career ahead of him when he first took ill suffering from abdominal pain and constant nausea.
He spent five months undergoing tests to determine the cause of his illness and in August last year, just days after being released from hospital, was rushed back in with a suspected heart attack.
From then on he began to suffer constant seizures and spent the following three month on the neurological hospital ward with doctors later finding a small cyst in the pineal gland of his brain.
His mother Lisa described how the family have been left in turmoil since the illness struck her healthy son.
"He started taking ill in March and from then on has been in and out of hospital," she said.
"They found a cyst on his brain and said he was suffering from non-epileptic seizure.
"He can take anything from 15 to 30 seizures a day, lasting about 10 to 20 minutes - one even lasted 23 hours."
Now wheelchair bound and unable to take part in the sports he once loved, Ms Forbes said after watching a television programme about seizure alert dogs, her son had found a way of helping himself achieve some independence.
The dogs ?r? trained t? respond t? seizures, including fetching medicine, a phone, phoning the emergency services, lying with the person during the seizure and providing stimulation t? ?n unconscious/semi-conscious person post-seizure.
"He was watching a programme about the seizure dogs and from then on he has been intent on getting one," said Ms Forbes.
"The dog can get a scent or chemical from the body when the person is going to have a seizure and alert them or alert someone else.
"He has been accepted to get the dog, but needs to raise £7,500 and he's now trying to do that.
"He was a footballer before all this, loved doing sporty things like paint balling and now he's wheelchair bound and is so restricted at what he can now.
"Joseph has to depend a lot on me and the rest of the family and by having this dog, it will give him more independence.
"It will be a chance for him to do a bit more for himself."
Mr Forbes has set up a gofundme page online and is currently organising a number of events to raise money for the dog. For further information contact www.gofundme.com/wp7ykg.
