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Mason County boys face uncertainty of epilepsy

 

Point Pleasant Register photo Ezekiel Ross, 12, right, and Mark Kincaid, 11, look perfectly normal but must cope with epilepsy.
Point Pleasant Register photo
Ezekiel Ross, 12, right, and Mark Kincaid, 11, look perfectly normal but must cope with epilepsy.

POINT PLEASANT, W.Va. — Courage isn’t necessarily found facing a tiger in the jungle, or jumping out of an airplane – sometimes courage is found by simply living a normal life while facing the unknown.

Take Ezekiel Ross, 12, who attends Hannan Junior High School and Mark Kincaid, 11, a sixth grader at Roosevelt Elementary. Both boys look perfectly normal in their normal lives but they live with the unknown – namely, epilepsy.

For those who have epilepsy, life is constantly facing the unknown and explaining their disease to people. Because of these reasons, and a need to raise awareness, the Second Annual Courage Walk for Epilepsy Awareness will be held on April 5 at Riverfront Park. Registration starts at 11 a.m. and the walk starts at noon. Walkers will travel north along the floodwall’s river walk and emerge on North Main Street, then travel back down Main St. to the park’s entrance for prize drawings and more fun. The Hannan High School Dance Team will also be performing.

Both Ross and Kincaid are members of local 4H clubs. Ross’ club, the Country Stars, decided to start the walk last year. Kincaid said once he heard about the walk, he knew he immediately wanted to be a part of it – it was as if a desire to do something collided with an actual plan started by the Country Stars.

Ross’ mother, Becky Hut, said the walk is successful because it receives support from countless 4H clubs, volunteers and the community at large. Last year’s goal of raising $4,000 was met with hundreds of people participating. All funds collected go to the Epilepsy Foundation of Greater Cincinnati and Columbus which helps families in this area with things like purchasing expensive medications to treat the disease. Hut said luckily her son has health insurance but without it, purchasing those drugs to treat epilepsy would be a real hardship.

Hut said epilepsy is overlooked because you can’t tell someone has it just by looking at them.

“I have a normal life, just sometimes not normal,” Kincaid said about what happens when he has seizures which haven’t happened for about two years now, thankfully.

Kincaid explained when he would have seizures, they happened at night and he thinks about them each time he goes to sleep…

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