Mum’s tribute to epileptic dad
The partner of a man who died in a car crash before his son was born hopes more awareness about epilepsy will prevent the same thing happening to others.
In 2014, Marshall Daldry died after suffering an epileptic seizure while driving.
His partner Laura Tutty was pregnant at the time with their son MJ Daldry-tutty.
MJ is now 2 and Tutty has made a video to share Daldry’s story with both her son and with the public.
She posted the video on Facebook and it has since received 245 shares and more than 8000 views.
In it, she remembers Daldry and urges people to be more aware of epilepsy.
‘‘When Marshall passed away I decided I wanted to do something,’’ Tutty told the Manawatu Standard.
‘‘I saw him really struggling. He was pushed aside over and over again.
‘‘Ever since then I wanted to do something to make people realise.’’
Tutty said it had been hard after Daldry died, being pregnant as well. ‘‘I didn’t leave the house. ‘‘But once MJ arrived it got a bit easier because, I guess, I had something to focus on.’’
‘‘Its just hard sometimes. It’s something I’m going to have to explain.
‘‘That is the saddest part of it, MJ will never get to [meet his dad] and Marshall never got to experience being a dad when more than anything in the world that was what he wanted.’’
Tutty said she wanted to make a book for her son and asked for help on Facebook.
‘‘From snowballed.’’
Tutty used responses she received from all over the world to make a video and said she thought at most a couple hundred people might see it.
‘‘It was cool seeing people get behind it’’
She hoped the video would not only show MJ who his father was, but also encourage people to think more about epilepsy.
‘‘If you have not had someone in your life who has had it, you don’t understand it.’’
Tutty said Daldry had his first seizure at 16 and they had been quite sporadic.
‘‘Then, all of a sudden, it became more and more frequent.’’
Daldry’s medication had made him sick and was really harsh, she said.
Tutty said there was need for more alternative treatments.
‘‘It is 2017. We should be looking at those other medications.
‘‘There’s no reason why shouldn’t be used.
‘‘It has been shown it helps.’’ there it just it