By Kira Gale

I never knew about epilepsy. And if I had not met Chanda Gunn, maybe I still wouldn’t know about it.

I met Chanda Gunn at my first goalie camp, in Burlington, Massachusetts. I was a beginning hockey player and I had never played goalie before. She helped me put on my equipment, remembered my name, and gave me extra help on the ice. She was very nice to everyone at the camp. She was enthusiastic about all the drills we did, even if they were boring or very hard. She is the amazing USA National Team’s starting goalie.

Chanda and her team went to the Torino Olympics, and she won the 2005 World Championships for her team in a shootout. Shootouts are used to break ties after a five-minute sudden-death overtime. If neither team scores in the overtime, a shootout decides the game. In a shootout, a goalie faces five breakaways. A breakaway is one shooter trying to score on the goalie. A shootout is the worst thing that could happen to a goalie in a game. Breakaways are very hard to stop, especially when you can’t move until they cross the blue line.

I didn’t know that Chanda had epilepsy until she told me. She said she has had epileptic seizures since she was nine. An epileptic seizure is when a person’s brain has abnormal electrical activity, and they experience unconsciousness or collapsing. She had to stop doing some of her favorite activities, such as surfing and swimming because she would drown if she had a seizure while in the water. She saw her brother playing street hockey and wanted to try it. She started hockey because she could have a seizure and if she fell, she would be padded and safe.

In August, three years after meeting her, we had a sleepover in Hyannis, Cape Cod. We went to a joke shop, raced go-karts, and stayed in a hotel. Before bed, we watched “She’s the Man.” We laughed so much that it was hard to sleep. I had a blast!

The next day, I was in a PBS film about epilepsy with Chanda at a rink in Hingham, Mass. Each scene had to be just right, so we had to do things over and over again like walking around the pro shop pretending to look at sticks and skates.

Chanda was interviewed about her experiences with epilepsy since she is a spokesperson for epilepsy.com. She spoke with passion about the need to find a cure for people with epilepsy, and how lucky she was to have a good medication so she can live a normal life. I learned that many people with epilepsy don’t have good medication. When I watched the other parts of the film, I learned even more about epilepsy. I didn’t know that seizures could affect speech or the functioning of the brain, or that seizures can vary from short or long to mild or severe, or that there can be many of them during the course of a day. I didn’t know how expensive medication could be.

After seeing the film, I wondered how I could help. Chanda asked me help out at the epilepsy.com table at the Boston Bruins’ Wives Festival. It was fun telling people who came to our table about epilepsy. I was teaching them, just as Chanda had taught me! Most of them had never heard about epilepsy, and it felt good to know something that they didn't know about a condition as severe as epilepsy. I enjoyed telling them about epilepsy because I was giving what Chanda had given me.

After learning even more about epilepsy, I wondered what it would be like to have to go to school with epilepsy. What would happen if I had a seizure? Would my classmates treat me the same way? Would they tease me? I realized how hard it would be to lead a normal life. My life would be very different without Chanda. She has taught me almost all I know about epilepsy. She has changed my life, how I play hockey, and who I aspire to be.

In September I will be starting school at Buckingham, Brown, and Nichols and I am thinking that I would like to help teach others about epilepsy just as Chanda taught me.