Generous donation funds new EEG machine

The Jonathan Thurston Epilepsy Fund has kindly donated £8,000 to the Neurophysiology Department at Derriford Hospital, which has enabled the department to purchase a new EEG machine.

Jonathan, who died in December last year, at the age of 29, had lived with epilepsy since the age of 15 and sadly died from a seizure during the night. Although he was not a patient of the hospital, his family, who live locally, have set up the trust in his memory to raise money to help treat local people with epilepsy and have so far raised thousands of pounds.

Janet Thurston, Jonathan’s mum said: “In memory of Jonathan, we wanted to donate something that would help others who have Epilepsy, as 600,000 people in this country have the condition.

“Various events took place to raise the money, including Golf Days at Yelverton Golf Club and Richmond Golf Club in London, a quiz night organised by Lloyds Bank in Plymouth and fund raising by many friends and family.”

The new PSG (Polysomnography) machine, which records the electrical activity of the brain  as well as numerous other physiological variables and has video recording, is a big advance over the previous equipment as it enables capture of many more EEG channels, which is extremely useful in differentiating nocturnal events caused by seizures from those caused by other sleep disorders.

Nigel Hudson, Neurophysiology Service Manager said: “Epilepsy is the most common serious neurological disorder and although its effects are life changing, it is not very high profile in terms of charitable giving.  It is therefore very gratifying that the Thurston family have seen fit to do some fund raising and donate the money to Derriford Hospital, enabling us to purchase this machine. We are all very thankful.”

A small brass plaque has been placed on the machine to thank the Thurston family for their generosity and their energetic fund raising efforts, which have generated over £8000 to enable this purchase.