Andrew Bailey

Andrew Bailey is an International Admissions Administrator in the Student Recruitment and Marketing Department.

Andrew has shared his experience of living with focal epilepsy with impaired awareness to help raise awareness of hidden disabilities and encourage non-disabled people to take time to understand the challenges faced by people living with long-term health conditions.

Please tell us about your disability and what’s it’s like to have a long-term health condition?

I have focal epilepsy with impaired awareness, which means that I lose awareness of my surroundings and lose awareness of time when I have a seizure.

During a seizure, I’ll be conscious, and will remain standing or seated, but I’ll be unable to respond to anyone or anything and I may grab at my own clothes or smack my lips together.

These seizures usually last for between 2-3 minutes. Sometimes someone will help me during the seizure and move me to a different, safe location so I don’t hurt myself, but I’ll feel very confused when I come round because I’m not where I was before it occurred.

What challenges do you face in the workplace as a disabled person?

I find it embarrassing if I have a seizure when I’m at work. The condition is never very far from my mind when I’m at work, this means it can be distracting, and it has lowered my confidence in certain areas.

Also, the side effects of the medication I take to try and control the seizures can be hard to deal with in a working environment, but my main challenge is not knowing how much other people know about epilepsy and specifically focal epilepsy.

How does TU support you in addressing these challenges?

Knowing there are people at work who know about my condition, and who know what to do, and what not to do, if I’m ill at work makes a big difference.

It’s also very helpful to have the flexibility to work from home if necessary.

What do you wish people better understood about disability?

That sometimes it isn’t all consuming. I’m still the same person. I feel like I’m identified by my condition by some people, but my disability is something I live with but not for, and I think that applies to a lot of disabilities.

What can non-disabled allies do to show their support for disabled colleagues and students at Teesside?

It would mean a lot if people would take time to learn a little bit about a disability, and also show someone with that disability that they’ve done that and are able to show empathy for their situation.