NZ Epilepsy Assist Dog Trust has so far placed 18 specially trained dogs with epilepsy sufferers around New Zealand.
The dogs not only help people manage seizures, they can also help break down the stigma and prejudice around epilepsy. Sometimes they can even alert their owners they may be about to have a seizure.
Simon Morton meets NZ Epilepsy Assist Dog Trust founder Andrea Hawkless, dog trainer Paula Denby-Gibbs, Erica Tiedermann and her dog Casper and Kate Hendra and her dog Roxy.
Epilepsy is a neurological disorder characterised by recurrent seizures that affects somewhere between 1 and 2 percent of the population here in New Zealand and about 50 million people worldwide.
