A personal trainer is proving that epilepsy does not stand in the way of success after being diagnosed with the condition as a teenager.

Cameron Mangan, from Inverkip, has spoken of the challenges the condition presented to his daily life - and how he managed his epilepsy to graduate from university and start his own business prior to the pandemic.

He admits it came as no surprise when he was diagnosed early on in his life, and says it can be tough when experiencing seizures and jerks.

Cameron explained: “I expected it when I was first diagnosed because I had already been admitted to casualty beforehand saying I had a seizure, although I did wonder what would happen next.

“I’ve got juvenile myoclonic epilepsy, and have three types of seizures that you get with that - including absence seizures and myoclonic seizures.

“The myoclonic jerks are normally before an absence seizure. Whenever I have an absence seizure, I am not really conscious at all in the moment.

“But after it, I just continue to do what I am doing. For example, if I am walking, I might go in the wrong direction, but I just continue to walk.

“Whenever I come back around, it feels like I have been teleported from somewhere else - like I have been lost in time and just really confused.”

Cameron says it can be hard not having some kinds of independence, such as being able to drive, but admits he enjoys the good moments when he can.

He said: “There is the challenge of feeling like you are kind of getting somewhere with your epilepsy and then two or three months down the line, you feel like you are just back at square one.

“I am not able to live as independently as I would want to, and I have never been able to drive because my seizures started when I was 15-16.

“I always have to use public transport, or walk places, or depend on other people.

“You just have to take every moment where you feel good and not take that for granted, because you know it’s not always like that.”

Despite his condition, Cameron achieved a first class honours degree in chemical engineering, after managing his epilepsy during university.

He added: “It was difficult at the start, because I had only recently been diagnosed. 

"In some ways that helped, because I wasn’t going out drinking or socialising, so it kept me focused on studying.

“However, it did stop me from staying up in Glasgow and being by myself because I wanted people around me just in case anything did happen.

“I managed it by making sure I took my medication and exercised in a safe way, and that I was sleeping long enough every night.

“When it came to the end of my degree, dissertation time got really bad, to a point where I felt I couldn’t control my epilepsy.

“I was probably having jerks most weeks for about three months, so it wasn’t great in that sense, but the university helped as best as they could - although they were limited in how they could help.”

Cameron has since trained more than 400 clients during Covid, indoors, outdoors and over zoom, and is one of only 250 mental health and exercise coaches in the UK.

For more information about epilepsy go to www.epilepsyscotland.org.uk.