AFL cult hero Neil Balme has gone public together with his secret battle following a current epilepsy prognosis.
The 71-year-old was solely identified with the situation in 2020 after struggling his first seizure which got here from out of the blue when he had been in mattress together with his spouse.
Balme, one of many key figures in Richmond’s current premiership dynasty because the membership’s head of soccer, mentioned he has no reminiscence of the seizure and has since had additional episodes.
“I woke up in the ambulance — I haven’t got a great recall of this — but I woke up and said, ‘Where the F am I?’” Balme instructed 7NEWS.
“I genuinely can’t recall all that stuff,” he admitted.
“Anything could have happened. It is pretty scary, when you think about it.”
Watch each match of each spherical of the 2023 Toyota AFL Premiership Season LIVE on Kayo Sports. New to Kayo? Start your free trial now >
His spouse Carmel has additionally opened up concerning the scary incident.
“This horrible noise like a koala just started happening and I looked to my left and it was Neil clinching his teeth and making the worst noise ever,” she mentioned.
Balme has misplaced round 20kg because the first seizure.
He is talking out publicly about his battles after taking on a place as an envoy for the Walk For Epilepsy fundraising marketing campaign.
He earlier instructed News Corp: “It’s lucky my wife was there because if I was on my own I don’t know what would have happened,” he mentioned.
“I was making crazy noises and shaking, and I was sort of knocked out. She was terrified.
“She tried to make sure I was breathing and checked my heart and realised something bad was going on so she rang triple-0.
“I woke up in the ambulance going, ‘Where the hell am I?’ I was in hospital for a few days and they sort of figured it out.”
Balme performed 159 video games for Richmond within the Seventies together with the 1973 and 1974 premierships and coached Melbourne for 98 video games within the ‘90s.
He is now encouraging others impacted by epilepsy to equally open up about it.
“I believe everything you’ve got, you’re better off getting it out there, talking about it — you’re not going to fix it by denying it,” he mentioned.
The Walk For Epilepsy fundraising marketing campaign begins October 1.
Source: www.news.com.au
