Mr. Speaker, October is Dysautonomia Awareness Month.
My constituent, Emily Wilkinson, is a 19-year-old Sault College student. She studies early childhood education, coaches a children's soccer team and hopes to some day go to Africa.
Three years ago, Emily was diagnosed with dysautonomia, a condition causing malfunctions to the autonomic nervous system. Emily could not stand for more than a minute. She was bedridden and had to be home-schooled. This condition has caused all kinds of distressing symptoms for Emily, including dizziness, tremors, heart palpitations, severe fatigue, brain fog, seizure-like activities and many more symptoms.
Emily says, “Living with this condition is comparable to someone living with congestive heart failure and COPD. It takes people affected by this disease three times more energy to stand than a normal person.”
Emily has a dream of spreading awareness so people can get the help they need faster and so more research can be accomplished. I am impressed by Emily's courage and honoured to help share her message with the House and Canada.