INDIANAPOLIS — Epilepsy is a neurological disease without a cure that impacts millions across the country.
More than 77,000 Hoosiers life with the disease, one of those is Jojo Gentry.
Gentry hopes sharing her story will make others feel empowered.
"I resonate with people who have epilepsy because I am one of them," Gentry said.
She was diagnosed less than 10 years ago.
In the thick of her broadcasting career she had her second seizure.
The first happened in college, but after two seizures an epilepsy diagnosis is given.
"When I was diagnosed it was almost like a taboo topic," Gentry said.
Gentry says she kept it to herself, scared of how it might change things with her friends and coworkers.
"Can I do this job or can I do what I want to do even in your personal life can I drive, can I see friends in the ways that i used to see them?," Gentry said.
It was in that dark time, one she called a state of shock that she was introduced to the Epilepsy Foundation.
"What can people like me do. I don't know how to navigate my next steps. That's when I was introduced to free resources as well as free support groups and that's when I had a lot of my questions answered and it allowed me to go on with the rest of my life," Gentry said.
Today she says her seizures are kept at bay from medication taken twice daily.
She's now an advisory board chair for the Epilepsy Foundation of Indiana, working to organize the walk to end epilepsy.
"It feels like home and this walk should feel like a safe place, a home, a hub if you want to call it for people who live with epilepsy or just want to support people they know live with epilepsy," Gentry said.
A walk to end epilepsy is being held at Butler University for the second year in a row this weekend.
It starts at 11:15 a.m. on Saturday.
You can also register and learn more on the Epilepsy Foundation website.
